1-Day Job Action Idles Cargo Ships on West Coast

Pacific Rim trade sputtered to a halt and dozens of mammoth cargo ships sat idle in their ports Monday as union dockworkers from Los Angeles to Seattle stayed off the job in a one-day show of support for striking longshoremen in Liverpool, England.

The work stoppage, which silenced the usually bustling San Pedro Bay harbors during the day but was expected to end in time for the night shift, will result in millions of dollars in extra fees for steamship lines but is likely to have only a minimal effect on the delivery of goods.

At the Los Angeles-Long Beach harbor complex, the nation’s busiest, 33 ships were either stranded in berths with no one to handle their cargo or were anchored in the San Pedro Bay with nowhere to go.

By staying away from the job on a paid holiday, when activity at the port complex is typically down at least 25% anyway, the workers collectively sacrificed millions of dollars of their own pay to demonstrate unity with their European brothers. Officials from the Pacific Maritime Assn., which represents terminals and steamship companies in labor talks, could not be reached for comment, but estimated that during a one-day job action in 1995 the union had given up $4.5 million in wages.

“We don’t consider it a sacrifice,” said one tractor driver from International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union Local 13 in Wilmington, the union’s largest. “We don’t mind giving up days for good causes. We’ve got to stick together.”

The San Francisco-based union, with about 8,500 West Coast members, did not return phone calls seeking comment, but said in a memo earlier this month that the Liverpool labor dispute represents a “relentless global offensive to increase profits at the expense of working people.”

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Union dockworkers in Liverpool, one of England’s major ports, have been on strike since September 1995, when the company that operates the harbor fired 330 workers who refused to cross a picket line, union members said. Those workers were replaced with nonunion labor, but the company is still in settlement talks.

Monday’s work stoppage was coordinated by the International Transport Workers Federation, a global consortium of unions. It was the first time the powerful International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union, which has historically taken the lead in a number of political causes, exercised its muscle to support the Liverpool workers. Critics suggested that it was embarrassingly late in this instance.

“I think they’ve got to do something to save face,” said William E. Coday, the retired chairman of the Pacific Maritime Assn. “They had painted themselves as the most liberal union. They, more than anyone else, had to do something because they adopted that mantle.”

Monday’s job action could also signal more rough seas in the union’s tumultuous relationship with employers. Members of the union have been unhappy with their new contract since it took effect Oct. 26, and for the last three months ports up and down the West Coast have reported sporadic work slowdowns that cut productivity by as much as 30%, according to the maritime association.

Although the new three-year pact will increase the base wage of most longshoremen $2 this year to $24.68 an hour, it eliminated lucrative side deals between employers and individual union members, particularly crane operators.

And at other West Coast ports, such as Portland, Ore., officials reported labor slowdowns that were apparently led by clerks who wanted to be included in a higher wage category.

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Word of Monday’s planned work stoppage had spread throughout the industry, and steamship companies said they had taken steps to avert a major loss of time and money. In some cases, vessels heading from the Asian ports to the United States slowed down so they would not be caught at the docks with no labor. Others accelerated their ships last week to arrive and depart from West Coast ports by Monday morning.

“It’s cheaper to be at sea than to come here,” said Gunnar Gose, transportation manager for Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd., or K-Line, whose massive vessel Newport Bridge was idled at the Long Beach port Monday. Others said they would employ extra dockworkers and utilize additional cranes to handle more cargo and make up for lost time on the next shift.

“When you lose a day, it just jams up everything else,” said Ray Keene, chief operating officer for Mitsui OSK Lines, which sped one of its ships ahead of schedule into the Seattle harbor to escape delays Monday. “We can make it up, but we have to steam that much faster, and fuel consumption rises quickly.”