Union seeks more
workers at L.A. ports
LOS ANGELES >> Thousands of additional dockworkers are needed at the nation's largest port complex to cope with a crush of cargo traffic that has caused delays and threatens to undermine security inspections of cargo containers, labor leaders said yesterday.
Despite a tentative agreement between shipping operators at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and the International Longshore & Warehouse Union, a final agreement on how to add more workers has not been reached.
The union and the Pacific Maritime Association, which represents shipping companies, have yet to agree on terms of expanding the ports' work force. So far, local union and shipping company officials have agreed to hire 2,000 so-called casual workers and establish a pool of more than 10,000 others.
Any West Coast shipping agreement has a great impact on Hawaii, which depends on ocean transport more than any other state. The islands import about 90 percent of all goods through container ships from ports in California and Washington state.
Hawaii longshoremen, also represented by the ILWU, negotiate their own contract
During a conference call with reporters yesterday, the ILWU leadership said hiring thousands of workers would not help alleviate a logjam of cargo that has developed at the ports over the past month.
"The real problem is the infrastructure, the rails being backed up, lack of equipment, particularly chassis and trucks, limitations of land space, questions of security," said David Arian, president of the ILWU Longshore Local 13. "Even if we fill all the jobs ... we still have to look at all the questions if we really want to move cargo through the ports."
Pacific Maritime Association
www.pmanet.org
International Longshore and Warehouse Union
www.ilwu.org