Armed guards spook West Coast dock worker negotiators
SAN FRANCISCO - West Coast ports weren't the only thing shut down today. So were contract talks between dockworkers and their employers after efforts to bring in a federal mediator collapsed.
The mediation session ended before it began Tuesday after the presence of armed guards hired by the shipping lines association spooked union negotiators.
The collapse comes as businesses across the country, from toy manufacturers to auto makers, are beginning to feel squeezed by the shutdown of all 29 West Coast ports, which handled more than $320 billion worth of imports and exports in 2001.
One of the San Francisco Bay area's major employers said it was prepared to shut down production because of the lockout. New United Motor Manufacturing employs 5,100 workers at its auto plant.
"If we don't get the spigot turned back on right away, we will shut down our trade side Wednesday and the passenger side sometime Thursday," said NUMMI spokesman Michael Damer. "We've exhausted the inventory of parts we had built up."
The Pacific Maritime Association, which represents shipping companies and terminal operators, locked out 10,500 members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union on Sunday, claiming workers had engaged in an illegal slowdown after failing to extend their expired contract.
On Tuesday, union representatives stormed out of a mediation session, accusing their employers of sabotaging the session with "gun-toting security guards."
"Thug tactics will not work with this union," said Jim Spinosa, the union's president and chief negotiator.
Peter Hurtgen, director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, said the armed guards were a breach of bargaining protocol.
The shipping association said the two plainclothes guards, both off-duty police officers, were there to protect its president, Joseph Miniace.
Tuesday's conflict further soured the contract dispute that has effectively closed West Coast ports since Friday and paralyzed the flow of billions of dollars worth of cargo headed for all 50 states.
Spinosa said the union will not meet with the current set of association negotiators - they need to be replaced with the associations' executive board, he said.
Shipping lines vowed to keep all major West Coast ports closed until the longshoremen agree to extend their expired contract as the talks continue. The union has refused to budge until the lockout ends.
The two sides are at odds over pensions and other benefits, as well as the union's demand to control any new jobs that would come with the introduction of modern cargo-handling technology.
Under the expired contract, full-time longshoremen earn an average salary of $80,000 a year, while the most experienced foremen average $167,000.
If the standoff drags on, "things are not going to be arriving on shelves when they are supposed to," said Erik Autor, international trade counsel at the National Retail Federation.
Many merchants have protected themselves by shipping some holiday goods in advance by aircraft. But air shipping is expensive and stores could pass the costs along to customers.
"This is the two-minute warning for the Christmas season. We got hit at the most vulnerable moment," said Charlie Woo, founder and chief executive of Megatoys in Los Angeles, which has $750,000 worth of toys in transit. "The customer wants my stuff, but it's on the water."
In a letter to President Bush, the West Coast Waterfront Coalition, which represents retailers and transportation firms, urged the White House to take "whatever steps are necessary" to reopen the ports. Even if the ports reopened immediately, it would take a month for companies to get their supply chains working normally again, said the group's executive director, Robin Lanier.
The port shutdown has also begun to pinch Asian shippers whose container vessels are stranded in and outside North American ports, and a protracted shutdown could ripple throughout the regional economy - hurting manufacturers, transport and other related industries.
"This is not only affecting West Coast ports, it's having a chain effect," Sunny Ho Lap-kee, executive director of the Hong Kong Shippers Council, said Wednesday. "This could result in a disaster. If there's no sign of a compromise it will affect the whole global economy."
EDITOR'S NOTE - AP Business Writers Simon Avery in Los Angeles and Elaine Kurtenbach in Hong Kong contributed to this report.
On the Net:
Shipping Lines: http://www.pmanet.org
Longshoremen: http://www.ilwu.org/main.htm