For months before negotiations officially began on May 13, management officials said the crucial issue was technology. They said greater use of technology would save money, reduce the two-hour lines of trucks waiting to enter the ports and increase security in cargo-handling when the nation fears new terrorist attacks.
Management hates rules like the one that requires clerks in the longshoremen's union to type in information about all arriving merchandise when that information was already typed in when ships left Asia.
A study by Michael Nacht, a public policy professor at the University of California, found that not using technology more efficiently costs the shipping industry at least US$1 billion a year.
"We cannot avoid the issue of new technology," Joseph Miniace, president of the Pacific Maritime Association, told the union when negotiations began last month. "Currently, the West Coast is behind. We must see to it that the West Coast moves to the forefront."
While acknowledging that technology might reduce the number of jobs, management negotiators promised that it would not cause layoffs for any current workers. Many longshoremen are unimpressed by that promise because they do not trust management. But that is not the only reason union members fear more technology.
A legacy
"The union doesn't look at these jobs as jobs to trade away," Steve Stallone, the union's spokesman, said when the negotiations began. "We hold these jobs in trust to pass down to other people in the community. We negotiate for the next generation of longshoremen."
Union officials insist that theirs is an enlightened union that has often entertained the greater use of technology. They point to the landmark agreements of the 1960s that allowed ports to handle cargo in large containers. In return, the union shared in the rising profits -- in the form of unusually high wages -- made possible by modernization.
Some union officials acknowledge that the focus on technology has put them on the defensive. They point to other important issues in the talks, among them management's proposals to require retirees and current workers to begin contributing toward their health insurance.
"It's not fair that all these foreign-owned shipping lines want American workers and elderly American retirees who live on a fixed income to pay more for health coverage," said Ramon Ponce de Leon Jr., president of the largest longshoremen's local for the Los Angeles-Long Beach port.
In a brief interview, Miniace and James Spinosa, the union's president, defended the pace of the talks. They said in a joint statement that the two sides had successfully negotiated contracts over the past 30 years, and that "we are confident that we will succeed again."
RSS