With no end near, talks resume in strike of clerical workers at LA, Long Beach ports

With no end near, talks resume in LA port strike

LOS ANGELES — Talks resumed Monday after a weekend when negotiators for shipping companies and striking clerical workers made no apparent progress toward ending a strike entering its fifth day at the nation’s busiest port complex.

Progress was being made on “surface issues,” said John Fageaux Jr., president of the International Longshore Warehouse Union local that represents about 900 clerical workers at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

But he said the sides remained far apart on issues of most concern to the workers, such as job security and provisions against outsourcing,

“We are making some progress, but not on any of the core issues, unfortunately,” he said.

Fageaux said that during four hours of talks on Sunday, his side offered an agreement with no wage or pension increases, only guarantees that jobs would not be outsourced. The union gave employers until 5 p.m. Monday to consider the deal.

The shippers are seeking to use new computer programs allowing customers to access booking information, a move that the union has said would endanger jobs.

Stephen Berry, lead negotiator for the Harbor Employees Association, which represents the shippers, said employers have “completely answered” the union’s job security demands and have offered to keep all existing jobs for what he called the “highest paid clerical workers in America.”

“The union continues to demand featherbedding, which means hiring people and bringing in temporary employees when there’s no work to do,” Berry said. “It’s not acceptable.”

Berry also said the guarantees sought by the union would force the hiring of workers with nothing to do, and that the union’s offer of no wage increases would not apply to all the 14 companies he represents.

The strike that began when the clerks’ contract expired Thursday has caused no apparent disruptions in shipping because the essential paperwork they do is normally finished days in advance.