Both sides frustrated by slow talks as LA, Long Beach port clerks’ strike enters 6th day

Calif. port office workers’ strike enter 6th day

LOS ANGELES — Negotiators for shipping companies and clerical workers expressed frustration Tuesday over the lack of progress as they entered another round of contract talks aimed at ending a six-day strike at the nation’s busiest port complex.

The two sides couldn’t even agree on whether they have discussed bringing in a federal mediator.

Stephen Berry, lead negotiator for the 14 companies that are negotiating a new contract with about 900 clerical workers at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, said he has raised the option of bringing in the mediator but the union has been unwilling to try it.

“Our side is certainly willing to participate in that,” Berry said.

But union negotiator John Fageaux Jr. said Berry “never once suggested to using a mediator.”

“I’m frustrated because the union has done everything in its power to accommodate the employers,” added Fageaux, president of the International Longshore Warehouse Union local that represents the clerical workers.

The strike that began when the clerks’ contract expired July 1 has caused no apparent disruptions in shipping. Clerical workers, who handle paperwork for the shipment of cargo, are picketing at four of the 16 terminals at the port complex.

Berry said managers of two shipping companies at those terminals have been handling the work of their striking employees.

Fageaux warned that the strike could expand to other terminals if the talks reach an impasse.

The shippers want to use new computer programs giving customers access to shipping schedules, a move that the union has said would endanger jobs. The union is seeking provisions against outsourcing.

Berry said the shippers have offered protections against layoffs.

“For them to continue to say that is an issue is just disingenuous,” he said.

Berry said the union was unfairly demanding guarantees that would force the shippers to hire temporary and permanent workers whether or not there is work for them to do.

“We hope the union will drop unreasonable demands to control who we hire,” he said.

Fageaux maintained that for the past 10 years, the contract required a consistent staffing level but that the union has historically agreed not to fill vacancies if there was no legitimate reason to do so.