5th Day ILWU Strike Shuting LA Ports

Port of Los Angeles Strike Rolls on as Negotiations Continue

By Brian Sumers, Mercury News

04 December 12

egotiations to end the labor strike at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach continued for a fourth consecutive day Sunday, but sources close to the talks said the sides likely were not close to reaching an agreement. | PHOTOS

Reacting to the perceived stalemate, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa wrote a letter to both sides Sunday urging them to work around the clock and bring in a government or private mediator to help resolve the issues. The sides have been negotiating, intermittently, since Thursday night.

"The cost is too great to continue down this failed path," Villaraigosa wrote. "Mediation is essential and every available hour must be used."

In broad terms, the key issue remains staffing levels, sources say. Negotiators with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 63 Office Clerical Unit want to protect employment for as many of their members as possible, while management officials want more flexibility to control the number of temporary and full-time office workers they hire.

Many elected officials and retail executives had pushed the sides to negotiate an end to the work stoppage - possibly one that would even put the strike on hold while the sides continued to talk - but a quick resolution may no longer be possible, sources say.

In the meantime, many containers destined for Southern California sit elsewhere - on ships that cannot be serviced in Long Beach or Los Angeles or at other ports on the West Coast and Mexico.

The strike began at midday Tuesday when some members of the Office Clerical Unit - one of the smallest ILWU locals with only about 800 total members - walked off the job at APM Terminals Pacific Ltd., the largest terminal operator at the Port of Los Angeles. It spread on Wednesday, effectively shutting down three of six terminals in Long Beach and seven of eight terminals in Los Angeles after other union members refused to cross the picket lines.

The complex is by far the busiest shipping hub in the United States - Los Angeles is the top port by container traffic, and Long Beach ranks second, according to industry data.

Many members of the Office Clerical Unit, who provide back office and logistics support to most of the major terminal operators, have been working under terms of a set of contracts that expired in June 2010. Union members claim managers at many of the terminal companies have been quietly shifting jobs to lower-wage workers in other states and countries, an accusation denied by the employers. Management negotiators say the new contracts must stop so-called featherbedding - or providing temporary and permanent jobs to workers even when there is no work to perform.

The strike is only affecting terminals where the union has contract disputes, so a Disney Cruise Line ship called Disney Wonder was able to dock without difficulty on Sunday morning, Port of Los Angeles spokesman Phillip Sanfield said.

But the port's focus is cargo containers, the majority of which arrive from Asia on gigantic ships. And Sanfield said port officials are urging both union and management to come to an agreement soon, so the containers can move to warehouses across Southern California and beyond.

"Cargo continues to back up and concern is mounting throughout the worldwide logistics chain," Sanfield said. "We need resolution to prevent further economic damage."

Many logistics industry analysts initially said the strike occurred during a historically weak period for international trade because most retailers have already received their holiday shipments.

But the longer the strike lasts, the deeper the impact on the supply chain, industry experts say. Jonathan Gold, vice president of supply chain and customs policy for the National Retail Federation, said in an interview Sunday that it took retailers roughly six months to recover from the impact of a 10-day lockout in 2002 that affected ports throughout the West Coast.

"This shutdown of the ports doesn't just impact the retail industry," Gold said. "You've got manufacturers who are operating just-in-time supply chains, and you've got exports that aren't moving because the ports are shut down. We're in day five. We need it to end now because it's going to take some time to clear through the backups."

The National Retail Federation is one several groups to ask President Barack Obama to wade into the dispute. Under the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act governing union-management relations, Obama could invoke an emergency mechanism and ask a federal court to order an 80-day cooling-off period. President George W. Bush used the power during the 2002 lockout.

But Gold said the federation has not heard back from the White House regarding its request, which it delivered by letter, and observers say it is unlikely the president will get involved - at least soon.

Several sources have calculated that the strike is costing the economy more than $1 billion a day, but Jock O'Connell, an international trade economist who studies the shipping industry, said Sunday in an email that the figure is slightly misleading. O'Connell said it will be several weeks before anyone will be able to come up with a good estimate on the true economic cost of the strike.

"That billion-dollar-a-day number wrongly assumes that all of the cargo being delayed or diverted will never be delivered and would have to be entirely written off," O'Connell said. "To be sure, someone in the supply chains will sustain losses because of late deliveries, but nearly all of those goods not being handled right now at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach will eventually reach a market."

The strike's local impact could be greater if shippers decide to bring their goods to other ports in the future, but that also won't be known quickly. Logistics industry experts say no shippers like to send their goods to areas known for trouble, but they acknowledge most North American ports have some reliability issues - whether due to labor unrest, poor infrastructure or bad weather.

East Coast ports have had their own issues recently. The ILWU's East Coast counterpart - the International Longshoremen's Association - recently postponed plans for a strike that could have crippled trade there this fall. And the Port of New York and New Jersey still has not fully recovered from damage inflicted by Hurricane Sandy in late October.

Jobs First, Not GOP Deficit Scaremongers

Today's Numbers Show Why Jobs Must Come First

By Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Blog

07 December 12

oday's jobs report shows an economy that's still moving in the right direction but way too slowly, which is why Washington's continuing obsession with the federal budget deficit is insane. Jobs and growth must come first.

The cost of borrowing is so low - the yield on the ten-year Treasury is near historic lows - and the need for more jobs and better wages so high, and our infrastructure so neglected, that a reasonable government would borrow more to put more Americans to work rebuilding the nation.

Yes, unemployment is down slightly and 146,000 new jobs were created in November. That's some progress. But don't be overwhelmed by the hype coming out of Wall Street and the White House, both of which would like the public to believe things are going quite well.

The fact is some 350,000 more people stopped looking for jobs in November, and the percent of the working-age population currently employed continues to drop - now at 63.6%, almost the lowest in 30 years. Meanwhile, the average workweek is stuck at 34.4 hours.

The slowness of the jobs recovery isn't because of Hurricane Sandy, which it turns out had very little impact on November's job numbers (the hurricane's negative effects were more than offset by a Thanksgiving earlier than normal, and an early start to the Christmas buying season). And it's not because of any uncertainty over the looming "fiscal cliff." Most consumers in November remained oblivious about any pending cliff.

The reason the economy is still under-performing is overall demand is inadequate. Businesses won't create more jobs without enough customers. But consumers can't and won't spend because they don't have the money. Unless or until the private sector - businesses and consumers - are able to boost the economy, government must be the spender of last resort.

But the nation has bought into the Republican frame of thinking that we have to "get our fiscal house in order" before the economy can get back on track. Although Barack Obama was reelected and Democrats gained seats in the House and Senate, that frame is still dominating debate.

And even though we're near a fiscal cliff that illustrates how dangerous deficit reduction can be when so many people are still unemployed, the White House and the Democrats seem incapable of changing the frame of debate.

But remember: Jobs must come first. Job creation must be our first priority.

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Robert B. Reich, Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley, was Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration. Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the last century. He has written thirteen books, including the best sellers "Aftershock" and "The Work of Nations." His latest is an e-book, "Beyond Outrage." He is also a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine and chairman of Common Cause.

 

Michigan GOP Pass Anti-Union Law

Michigan Republicans Pass 'Right to Work' for Less Bills Without Hearings or Input from Residents

5COMMENTS

12/07/2012

Chris Savage

Chris Savage is a Michigan-based political writer and owner ofEclectablog. You also can follow him on Facebook and Twitter.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and President Barack Obama spoke out against "right to work" for less legislation yesterday. These types of laws reduce wages and benefits for working families. 

Two days ago, I reported that Michigan Republicans, along with Gov. Rick Snyder, were planning on making Michigan the nation’s 24th “right to work” for Less (RTWFL) state by the end of the year. The timetable was, apparently, far more aggressive than that. The very next day after Snyder announced RTWFL was “on the table,” he held a joint press conference with House Speaker Jase Bolger and Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville saying that he was asking for the legislation to be passed and that he would sign it into law.

“I do not view this as something against the unions,” Snyder said. Rather, he went on, it’s about “workers [having] the right to choose who they associate with.”

What happened next must have set a new record for the speed at which the Michigan legislature gets bills passed. By the end of the day, both the Senate and the House vacated existing “placeholder” bills, dropped in new RTWFL language and passed a total of three bills—two in the Senate and another in the House. No committee hearings. No floor debate. The Democrats could do virtually nothing as the Republicans steamrolled the bills through without any formal public input whatsoever.

A procedural speed bump put in place by Democrats delayed moving the Senate bills to the House by one day and there is a mandatory five-day waiting period before the House can take action. This allows union-supporting citizens to express their disdain for these new laws, just as they did on Thursday as thousands of Michiganders descended on the capitol building. In the onslaught of this informal public input, House Speaker Bolger locked down the capitol building. Tempers flared, protestors were maced and it took a court order requested by the Democrats to get the building opened again.

The bills include a $1 million  appropriation. Michigan law precludes citizen referendums to overturn laws with appropriations, so not only was there no opportunity for public input before the bills were voted on, there will be none afterwards, as well.

Michigan AFL-CIO President Karla Swift told me, “Today was a dark day for democracy in Michigan. The people were shut out of their own capitol so that lawmakers could better serve corporate special interests. But working people in this state are resilient, and will keep fighting until their voices are heard.”

Michigan Democratic Party chair Mark Brewer was a bit more gloomy. Referring to the role multimillionaire Dick Devos played in the RTWFL legislative action, he issued a statement saying, “The Tea Party takeover of the Michigan GOP is officially complete. Snyder, Bolger and Richardville have shown they are nothing more than puppets for Dick DeVos.” DeVos is reported to have assured Republicans that if they faced recall, he would bankroll their fight against it. He’s reported to have threatened to withhold campaign donations from the same lawmakers if they didn’t vote to pass the bills.

I spoke to a number of union members who were in Lansing yesterday. Katie Oppenheim, a nurse and Michigan Nurses Association member, said, “What can I say? It is a sad day in Michigan—in so many ways. As a nurse and union member, I fear for the safety of patients and nurses. Through collective bargaining, we have been able to negotiate adequate staffing, adequate rest periods and safety equipment. I think the corporate mentality will completely take over.”

Rick Catherman, a teacher and Michigan Education Association (MEA) member from Chelsea, wrote me after an exhausting day, much of which was spent outside in the freezing cold, waiting to be allowed back into the capitol building. It was a “Day of ‘The Big D’s,'” he wrote—“Democrats, Demonstrators, Disappointment, Disgust and Determination! For the state Democrats, it was a day of disappointment and disgust with their colleagues for rushing this damaging legislation through with no committee meetings or testimony, or opportunity for input from citizens of Michigan. Union workers, however, were determined demonstrators."

Catherman continued:

It was great to see state leaders standing with the demonstrators. Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero, MEA president Steve Cook, Karla Swift, UAW president Bob King, along with current state representatives and senators—all were there with us.

The energy in the capitol building from demonstrators was amazing–teachers standing with nurses, auto workers and service and food workers, all standing up for the citizens of Michigan. Nurses standing up for their patients, teachers standing up for our students. It was amazing.

Christine Barry, owner of the state blog Blogging for Michigan, reflected on the day’s events in light of our state’s important place in the labor movement.

My great-grandfather and my uncle were in the hole, my other uncle was in Little Fisher and my grandma and grandpa were on the outside,” she said, referring to significant labor protests in Michigan labor history. “We already fought this battle. We fought this battle with door hinges and water hoses and broomsticks and rolling pins. We were beaten and shot at and we were hungry and cold. We faced down the National Guard and the company police and we won the right to unionize our work. We have union shops because we earned them, and no corporate hack is going to take them away and call it freedom.

One of the biggest ironies — or, perhaps, hypocrisies — of yesterday’s action is the language used by Gov. Snyder and Republicans as they justified what they did. They referred repeatedly to “choice” and “freedom.” However, on the very same day, the House passed incredibly regressive anti-Choice legislation limiting women’s access to reproductive and abortion services and also a committee passed a replacement bill for the now-repealed Emergency Manager law, an anti-democratic law that disenfranchises local communities and takes away their voice in elected government. These are odd ways to celebrate “choice” and “freedom.”

Michiganders are tough and resilient. It’s only through highly gerrymandered state House and Senate districts that Republicans are able to have such complete control over our state legislature. Michigan elected President Barack Obama by a 10-point margin last month and sent Democrat Debbie Stabenow back to the U.S. Senate by an even wider margin. In 2014 and beyond, those who betrayed Michigan’s labor legacy are sure to pay the price politically. What is done can be undone and so it shall be.

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