PMA notes isolated ILWU slowdown actions, talks continue

PMA notes isolated ILWU slowdown actions, talks continue    Cracks appear to be forming in the cooperative and amicable facade that the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and Pacific Maritime Association have cultivated over the past several months of negotiations in search of a new West Coast dockworkers' contract, at least according to the employers' representatives.
   The PMA, which represents more than 70 shipping lines and terminal operators that hire ILWU workers at 29 West Coast ports, said on Friday that union leaders have ordered at least some of their 26,000 members to break the momentum of work at the two massive Southern California ports by staging communal breaks instead of the normal staggered break periods.
   PMA spokesman Steve Getzug claimed that productivity at the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles has fallen by 10 percent to 15 percent since the coordinated breaks began on Friday.
   'These unilateral actions by the ILWU are of heightening concern to us because they are occurring and escalating at a sensitive time during negotiations on a new West Coast waterfront labor agreement,' Getzug said Friday.
   The so-called 'unit breaks,' which shut the port terminals down during the morning and afternoon 15-minute break periods, are only permitted under the existing contract in the employers request it, according to the PMA.
   ILWU spokesman Craig Merilees said he knew of no such action taking place and suggested it was perhaps a minor and local incident confined to the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles that is being overblown by the PMA. However, he indicated that if the actions were taking place, it would be within the rights of the workers to do so.
   In the past, such actions have been found to be illegal in some cases under union/employer arbitration. However, since the current contract expired on July 1 and has not been extended, there is no mechanism for arbitration between the two sides.
   Union leaders have told members to continue working as if the contract was still in place.
   PMA officials have criticized the ILWU decision not to extend the contract on a short-term basis during the ongoing talks.
   The PMA also claimed in a weekend statement that some ILWU members at the Washington state Port of Tacoma walked off the job for about four hours late Friday, bringing operations at one terminal to a halt.
   According to the PMA, local workers took the action to protest a perceived lack of progress in the negotiations on a local contract component of the overall West Coast talks. That action led to delays, which the PMA said resulted in a single vessel sailing with more than 80 export containers, scheduled to be loaded, left on the dock.
   While unaffiliated reports suggest that the union actions are occurring, any impact on productivity is very minimal.
   The ILWU and PMA have jointly maintained since negotiations began in March that talks have been businesslike and cooperative on both sides, with none of the acrimonious bitterness characterizing the previous talks in 2002.
   An aggressive offensive by the PMA to achieve contract concessions during the 2002 contract negotiations, further exacerbated by a union 'work to rules' slowdown, resulted in a 10-day PMA lockout of ILWU workers that cost the national economy upwards of $1 billion per day in losses.
   With new leadership on both sides, the ILWU and PMA felt confident enough about the talks, that both agreed to begin negotiations nearly a month ahead of the normal schedule.
   The ILWU, hopeful a tentative agreement would be reached by or shortly after the July 1 expiration of the current contract, scheduled a meeting of a 100-delegate union caucus to begin today. Approval of the caucus, which meets through Friday, is the first step in approving any tentative agreement. Without a tentative contract to vote on however, may leave the caucus with little to do than review some agreed upon portions that have come out of the current talks.
   Late last month, both sides reported surmounting a major hurdle in the talks with the initial approval by negotiators of a tentative health care benefit agreement. Maintaining the current health care package for its members was a primary goal of the ILWU's negotiating platform going into the talks.
   Negotiators are still working to reach agreement on several major topics, including wages, pensions, and safety rules. Talks reportedly went through the weekend, are set to continue apace through the week. ' Keith Higginbotham