The strike triggered by a labor
dispute in America's busiest ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach has
lasted for the sixth day on Sunday without a solution, while
lobbyists have pressured the White House to intervene.
The Port of Los Angeles, the nation's busiest container harbor
facility, and second-ranked Long Beach together handled more than
400 billion dollars in goods arriving or leaving the West Coast by
ship, according to Los Angeles port spokesman Phillip Sanfield.
In addition, the two ports directly or indirectly support roughly
1.2 million Southern California jobs -- workers involved in moving
freight to or from the shipping complex. That does not count
ancillary employment of people hired in restaurants, retail or other
businesses that provide various services to those workers.
Combined, the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach move
40 percent of all containerized trade in the country.
A national coalition of U.S. business groups is urging an end to
the strike amid fears that a prolonged strike will cost the U.S.
economy many billions of dollars. What's worse, it could even spread
to the east coast.
Trade groups led by the National Retail Federation have sent
letters to U.S. President Barack Obama and leading members of
Congress, including California's two Democratic senators, Barbara
Boxer and Diane Feinstein, asking them to intervene and help end
the strike.
Those industry groups alleged that the strike has already cost 1
billion dollars a day to the U.S. economy.
The labor dispute has been triggered by 800 clerical workers at
the ports, members of the Office of Clerical Union Workers. But they
have the support of some 10,000 members of the International
Longshore and Warehouse Union.
The strike, which started last Tuesday, has effectively shut down
10 of the two ports' combined 14 container terminals. Four other
container terminals have remained opened, along with facilities for
handling break-bulk cargo such as raw steel and tanker traffic.
The clerks had been without a contract for more than two years
when labor talks with management broke off on Monday. The chief
stumbling block has been the future of union representation for jobs
that are lost through retirement.
Edward Wytkind, president of the Transportation Trades
Department, AFL-CIO (TTD), issued a statement on the contract
impasse between TTD member International Longshoremen and Warehouse
Union (ILWU) Local 63 Office Clerical Unit (OCU) and the Los Angeles/
Long Beach Harbor Employers Association.
"The Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO stands in full
support of the 800 striking office clerical workers at the ports of
Los Angeles and Long Beach who are waging a valiant battle to save
good-paying jobs that drive our nation's economy.
"These workers have gone 30 months without a contract and are
drawing a line against the steady and irresponsible outsourcing of
their jobs to the lowest bidder. Too many transportation workers
have seen their jobs disappear in an epidemic of outsourcing and
cost-cutting that has weakened our economy and the middle class. We
must not let that happen here.
"Instead of negotiating in good faith, industry representatives
have asked the federal government to intervene in this legal strike.
These efforts must be soundly rejected. Instead, management
officials must negotiate a fair and balanced contract that will
preserve these jobs now for future workers. Until that happens, we
will stand solidly behind the working men and women of ILWU Local 63
who walk a picket line in the name of economic justice," the
statement concluded.
The Harbor Employers Association said it has proposed "absolute
job security," guaranteed full-time pay, wage increases and a one-
time 3,000-dollar payment to each permanent employee to cover missed
pay hikes in 2010 and 2011.
The proposal also calls for pension raises for the next two years
and maintaining pension benefits for the following two years.
The employers have also agreed to give up full control over
whether and when temporary employees are called in to work.
But the union is demanding that employers hire additional,
unnecessary employees and is insisting on stronger restraints on the
implementation and use of technology, after agreeing to back down on
those demands, according to the Harbor Employers Association.
(c) 2012 Xinhua News Agency - CEIS. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.
