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Some carriers are reportedly diverting cargo to other ports as a precaution

LOS ANGELES – 07/21/07 – Negotiations are still underway between representatives from some of the world’s largest shipping lines and terminal operators that serve the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU) in an effort to avert a strike by the marine clerks that work at both ports that would effectively shut down operations at the two harbors. 

The union represents some 750 marine clerks that handle the documentation for container shipments and other transport paperwork.

Under their most recent contract, full-time marine clerks earn about $37.50 an hour, or $78,000 a year. They also receive a pension, health care benefits free of premiums, and 20 paid holidays a year.

The employers' latest offer, made before negotiations were halted for a day on Wednesday, included raises that over the life of a three-year contract would bump the employees' hourly pay to $39.20.

The 15,000-member ILWU is seeking increases that would equal $53 per hour by the last year of the contract and has said that its longshoremen members would honor picket lines if its 750 clerks go on strike.

"Just a handful of issues are still left on the table," said John Fageaux Jr., a spokesman for the International Longshore Warehouse Union shortly before the break in the talks.

Steve Berry, lead negotiator for the San Francisco-based Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), which represents the ocean carriers and terminal operators, said negotiators discussed issues specific to each company and its workers.

The employers were “preparing a response” to the union's latest offer, he said."We're making progress," Berry said.

"We're not there yet. We're moving forward, not backward."
The clerks had warned that a strike would occur if no deal was reached by 12:01 a.m. last Monday, but negotiations continued after that deadline.

A strike would, in effect, shut down loading and unloading operations at both ports, which, combined, handle a full 40% of all the containerized cargo traffic coming into the US and together handle cargo valued at $1 billion to $2 billion every day.

A port shutdown would also create ripple effects throughout many industries that depend on timely movement of cargo and come as the adjacent ports enter their busy pre-holiday season, when retailers depend on the facilities to handle increased volumes of imports.

There are some reports that some carriers that have been diverting some cargo to other ports such as Oakland, Portland, Tacoma, and Seattle.

The last strike affecting both ports took place in 2002 when longshoremen at ports from Seattle to San Diego were locked out for 10 days over a contract dispute.

That shutdown cost the nation's economy an estimated $1 billion to $2 billion a day and ended only when President George Bush invoked the Taft-Hartley Act to send the ILWU back to work.

According to the PMA’s latest shift dispatch summary issued this morning, there are 33 ships in port with 23 being worked with some 16,51 longshoremen at the ports’ docks, terminal gates, and rail facilties.

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