So, there should not be one local that is represented for all the west coast ports. Imagine if GM, Ford, Chrysler, and all the smaller auto makers, it's parts suppliers and others were represented by one local? Imagine if all steel companies were represented by one local??
Same goes to the management side. No one employer should represent all the interests of all west coast ports of entry.
If the union and management of a facility are at odds, then there should be a competitive alternative for both sides. If there's a strike/lockout in Oakland, shippers should have an alternative, just like a worker should have the alternative to work elsewhere if he doesn't like it, and just as management knows that it must negotiate for its own port to remain competitive with the shipper's alternatives.
Whether labor knows it or not, they're in big long term trouble, because past negotiations have been so onesided against management's competitiveness, that they're forcing bankruptcy, and huge unfunded pension liabilities, that defunct companies cannnot and will never pay.
So now government steps in, and forms a bailout of the unfunded pensions, and you know who now foots that bill------You Do!
You're right; it's time to break it all up.