PMA REINSTATES LOCKOUT OF DOCKWORKERS

PMA REINSTATES LOCKOUT OF DOCKWORKERS    The Pacific Maritime Association, which represents port employers on the U.S. West Coast, has extended its lockout of dockworkers at all West Coast ports because of a continuing dispute with the International Longshore & Warehouse Union.
   The PMA on Sunday issued a recommendation calling for its members to shut down their terminals again, from Sunday night to Tuesday morning.
   This follows a first shutdown of all West Coast terminals from Friday to Sunday morning. According to industry sources, dockworkers returned to work on Sunday morning but the employers found that dockworkers continued to work below normal productivity levels.
   “Following a 38-hour ‘cooling down’ period implemented by the PMA on Friday, all West Coast ports reopened (Sunday) morning, with disappointing results,” said a spokesman for the shipping line Matson.
   The PMA has said that its port lockout is a response to work slowdown measures by the International Longshore & Warehouse Union. The union denied that it has engaged in any slowdown.
   The re-instatement of the lockout will alarm shippers that a potentially extended shutdown of West Coast ports will severely disrupt the supply of products to the United States. “In the current unsettled environment, the company does not have the ability to predict the length of a shutdown,” Matson said.
   At least six container ships were forced to idle Saturday in the harbor near Long Beach, unable to offload their cargo, according to wire services.
   The increasingly tense PMA-ILWU dispute follows more than three months of slow negotiations over the renewal of a labor contract covering 12,500 dockworkers. The previous contract expired on July 1.