Port labor talks to begin today

Labor negotiators for dockworkers and some of the world’s biggest shipping lines open talks today on a new contract with the aim of avoiding the kind of bitter dispute that paralyzed West Coast ports for 10 days in 2002.

With 14 weeks to go before the current agreement expires, this marks the earliest start yet for contract talks between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Assn., both based in San Francisco.

The nation’s retailers are likely to be looking for any positive signal given the weakness of the U.S. economy and the key role that the 29 West Coast ports play in international trade. The Los Angeles and Long Beach ports, the nation’s largest cargo complex, account for 40% of U.S. cargo container traffic and 12% of Southern California’s economic activity.

Labor expert Nelson Lichtenstein sees the early start as a hopeful indicator.

“When negotiations begin early, it often signals a determination on both sides to resolve the issues without a strike. It’s a good sign,” said Lichtenstein, director of the Center for the Study of Work, Labor and Democracy at UC Santa Barbara.

Still, the possibility of a U.S. economic recession could affect the talks, perhaps leading the Pacific Maritime Assn. to take a harder line, he said. The shipping lines’ resolve might be strengthened by slowing trade between Asia and the West Coast as well as soaring costs, particularly for fuel.

“In a recession, when the use of the ports is reduced, the union has less leverage,” Lichtenstein said.

Maritime group President Jim McKenna said that it would be important to find ways to increase efficiency to remain competitive in an environment where the West Coast will face new competition from seaport projects in British Columbia and Mexico as well as from the expansion of the Panama Canal.

“It goes to the issue of competitiveness. If the trade shifts, it takes jobs and taxes and cargo away. We have to work on finding ways to keep the freight here. That is the name of the game,” McKenna said.

The union is expected to focus on protecting its benefits package. But safety is also a top priority; since the last contract talks, several dockworkers have died because of work accidents.

“Safety problems, including dramatic details of more than a dozen deaths that have occurred on the docks since 2002, along with suggestions for improving safety conditions,” are a primary concern, the union said in a statement.

In 2002, technology was a central issue -- computerized equipment threatened to shrink the union workforce. As the talks dragged on, the shipping lines accused the union of a work slowdown, a charge the union denied. But the maritime group locked workers out of their jobs, creating a backlog of ships offshore. The impasse was broken when President Bush intervened by using the Taft-Hartley Act, forcing an end to the lockout and imposing an 80-day cooling off period.

The Pacific Maritime Assn. represents 72 cargo carriers, terminal operators and stevedore companies, which handle the ocean shipment of more than 77% of the nation’s inbound container cargo from Asia. That freight is handled at 29 seaports from San Diego to Bremerton, Wash.

On the other side of the bargaining table will be the union representatives for more than 14,000 longshore dockworkers and marine clerks, who earn an average of $138,000 a year. The union is something of an anomaly in the U.S. labor movement; its membership has grown by 38% since the last contract talks.

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ron.white@latimes.com