Posted on 11/28/2012 5:03:39 PM PST by DeaconBenjamin
Clerical workers at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are walking off the job at all terminals and setting up picket lines outside at least some of them, a move that could effectively shut down most port activity, sources have told the Daily Breeze.
Other longshore workers at the nation's busiest port complex are not expected to cross the picket lines this afternoon, and business is expected to shut down at many of the terminals, a source said.
The major job action comes one day after members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 63 Office Clerical Unit struck APM Terminals at Pier 400 at the Port of Los Angeles. They were joined by other bargaining units of the longshore workers who refused to cross the picket line, curbing operations at what port officials call the busiest terminal in San Pedro. Port of Long Beach
On Tuesday night, an arbitrator ordered the dockworkers at Pier 400 back to work, but this morning they refused.
About 800 workers belonging to the ILWU Local 63's Office Clerical Unit have been working without contracts since June 30, 2010. Union officials say they want new contracts to protect workers against outsourcing jobs abroad. Management officials say they have no intention of outsourcing jobs to other countries.
With the strike now affecting most terminals, both sides are expected to continue their legal maneuvering today, and it is possible that the Pacific Maritime Association, a consortium of all port operators on the West Coast, will go to federal court to seek a temporary restraining order that requires the longshore workers to return to work, sources said.
Right before the big Christmas push.
And they will wonder why Mexican ports get so much business.
Commie union Neanderthals are such a bunch of crybaby whiners. One tantrum after another. No wonder they don’t have any time to do the jobs they’re hired to do.
I think I would tell them I’d see them after January 1, 2013, and enjoy your extended vacation.
If the job is to unload ships in Lng Beach, how can that be outsourced,i.e., how can someone in India unload a ship in California?
Just replace them...
wait.. how do you outsource a port??
If you can figure out how, let’s do it. lol
It is the Office Clerical group in the ILWU that has been working without a contract the last 5 months. The sticky issue is having their jobs outsourced to foreign workers overseas.
Ship them in?
I don't know for sure, but since it's the clerical unit, I'm guessing it's an asset visibility /inventory management function they do, monitoring what's loaded and unloaded at the dock. With bar codes, scanners and computers, it's a job just as easily done from Mumbai as it is from an air conditioned office at the dock that the worker never leaves.
Clerical workers? Let me guess. They want hundreds of clerical workers to add up columns of numbers with an adding machine instead of one clerical worker using a computer.
Stop Electing DEMOCRATS you dummies....the cost of business in the U.S. is so high causing companies to LOOK for BETTER OPTIONS elsewhere....
What would they like? $120 an hour (up from $80) to drive a forklift all day?
Ensenada is about 60-odd miles south of the border.
It would be fitting if the Police and LE would strike in the area where these folks are striking. Any bets how ugly it would get?
That’s why this union fought the introduction of barcodes in the first place. I remember the stories on FR from the early 2000’s.
So buy U.S. made products.
Sorry, that is not an accurate description of the issue. These unions are pushing back against technology improvements.
——Some union members also complain that technology itself jeopardizes jobs by automating some of the work previously performed manually by workers covered under old union contracts.
This has been a long standing effort of those Port Unions to avoid modernization.
——Technology emerged as a sticking point as the International Longshoremen’s Association and Atlantic and Gulf waterfront management entered a second day of discussions on a possible contract extension of their coastwide master contract.
http://www.joc.com/maritime-news/longshoremen-management-resume-talks_20090902.html
The combination of automated and manual crane operation results in a faster transfer, Harris said. For example, the Portsmouth terminal operates at a rate of 45 container-moves per hour, compared with a nationwide average of 35 to 38 moves.
http://www.nj.com/jjournal-news/index.ssf/2012/01/post_104.html
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