Stevedores seeking hiring flexibility in New York-New Jersey

Stevedores seeking hiring flexibility in New York-New Jersey The New York Shipping Association, which represents employers of longshoremen in the Port of New York and New Jersey, is seeking greater leeway in filling waterfront jobs.
   The NYSA wants both New Jersey and New York to modify the law that spells out the duties of the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor, so that terminals can hire additional longshoremen if they and the union that represents their employees agree. Most New York dockworkers are represented by the International Longshoreman’s Association.
   Currently, the Waterfront Commission holds hearings to weigh whether there is a need for additional workers on the docks, a process that some employers object to because they feel they should be able to adjust the size of their workforce to changing conditions just as other businesses do.
   The bill proposed by the NYSA has been passed by the General Assembly in New Jersey and is in a Senate Committee there. In New York, where a new legislative session has recently begun, the bill has been reintroduced in the state Senate.
   The Waterfront Commission would continue to do background checks on workers and retain law enforcement powers, but it would no longer be tasked with duties such as trying to 'bring the number of eligible longshoremen into balance with the demand for longshoremen’s services within the port' or 'protecting the job security of the existing work force of longshoremen by considering the wages and employment benefits of prospective registrants.'
   Workforce regulation has been a traditional part of the commission's mission since it was formed 54 years ago. The current law says in deciding whether or not to consider a request to add workers, one of the standards it should consider 'oppressive and evil hiring practices that may result from either a surplus or shortage of waterfront labor.' Those practices, which led to the formation of the Waterfront Commission, included practices like the daily 'shape-up,' where longshoremen seeking work sometimes had to kickback a part of their pay to get a job.
   A report in the Star Ledger of New Jersey on hearings held on the bill last year, said ILA officials were split on the need for the change in the law. Some favored it, while others from an ILA local in Hudson County objected to it because they said about 30 percent of their members have trouble getting the 1,300 hours of work they need to qualify for health benefits.
   But that would appear to be unusual. According to the last annual report posted on the Waterfront Commission’s Web site, more than half the hours worked by longshoremen and checkers in the years 2000-2002 were overtime.