PMA CALLS FOR MEDIATION, ILWU WILL HOLD WEST COAST RALLIES

PMA CALLS FOR MEDIATION, ILWU WILL HOLD WEST COAST RALLIES    The Pacific Maritime Association on Friday called for the use of a third-party mediator to find common ground between the PMA and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.
   In the PMA’s view, mediation is necessary to advance West Coast waterfront labor negotiations that have been suspended by mutual consent for three weeks.
   Steve Sugerman, a spokesman for the PMA, told AS+, “it’s reasonable to assume that, by calling for mediation, the PMA believes that the period of hard bargaining is over.”
   Steve Stallone, a spokesman for the ILWU, said, “as far as the union is concerned, negotiations haven’t even begun. They can’t start in earnest until the Bush administration gets off our back and stops pressuring us to cave in at the bargaining table.”
   The ILWU is holding rallies on Monday in Los Angeles, Oakland, Tacoma and Seattle. The ILWU claims that Tom Ridge, Homeland Security Director, has threatened government intervention if the dockworkers decide to strike.
   Labor Department officials and their counterparts at the departments of Transportation and Commerce, and the Homeland Security Office, have formed a special task force to monitor the West Coast labor talks. The government could invoke the Taft-Hartley Act if labor talks break down into slowdowns or strikes.
   “We want to encourage both parties to stay at the bargaining table until they reach an agreement,” a Labor Department spokesman was quoted in a recent AS+. “It would be irresponsible for us not to.”
   “When the extent of our support is clear, the government will ease up,' Stallone said. 'The PMA doesn’t want that, so they’ve made this lame call for mediation. It’s the last card they have to play.”
   Joseph Miniace, president of the PMA, did not name a specific mediator. “The PMA wants to talk to the ILWU about finding the right person to help us,” Sugerman said.
   “That’s just posturing,” replied Stallone. “How can we respond to nothing? They won’t even give us a name.”
   Both parties told AS+ that negotiations will resume Aug. 13.
   Since talks began on May 13 for a coastwise contract affecting 10,500 ILWU members, the PMA and the ILWU have met 28 times, for a total of 53 hours of bargaining.