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So. Calif. ports could face
strike
by office workers
Updated 5:31 p.m. ET, Wed Jun
30, 2004
By Bill
Mongelluzzo
The
JOURNAL of COMMERCE ONLINE
LOS ANGELES -- The Los
Angeles-Long Beach port complex (schedules),
already burdened with a longshore labor shortage and intermodal rail
congestion, faces the possibility of a job action by clerical workers in
the offices of steamship lines and terminal operators.
The contract for the Office
Clerical Unit of International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 63 in
Southern California expires at midnight Wednesday. Negotiators are
reportedly far apart on the key issues of health care benefits and wages.
Although the office clerical
workers are part of the ILWU, they are not covered by the new coastwide
longshore contract negotiated in late 2002. The Local 63 Office Clerical
Unit also has individual contracts with about a dozen steamship lines and
terminal operators, each slightly different.
Some companies have as few as
20 office workers covered by the ILWU contract, while the larger carriers
have 60 or more. The union members include office assistants and other
employees who work for shipping lines and terminal operators. They are not
cargo handlers.
Negotiators for the individual
employers and ILWU Local 63 clerical division could not be reached for
comment, so it is uncertain if any job action is contemplated if they are
unable to reach a settlement by midnight.
The contract covers only
office clerical workers in Southern California.
ILWU spokesman Steve Stallone
could not comment on the negotiations, but when asked if dockworkers would
honor any picket lines that might be set up by the office clerical
workers, he said they certainly would.
"You never cross a picket
line," Stallone said. If that scenario develops, the dockworkers would
only return to work if ordered to do so by an arbitrator, he said.
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