LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Born of a bloody strike and brutal work conditions, the West Coast dockworkers union built itself into one of the best-paid and most powerful trade unions in the nation.þþIts 10,500 members control the flow of more than $300 billion worth of goods annually through the major West Coast ports, and union leaders determine workers' daily job assignments -- leverage unrivaled among labor unions.þþNow, thick into its latest contract dispute with shipping lines, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union is locked in a fight that has led to the shutdown of 29 ports from Seattle to San Diego with a daily impact of an estimated $2 billion on the U.S. economy.þþThe Pacific Maritime Association, which represents shipping companies and terminal operators, claimed the ILWU had been calling for work slowdowns to pressure negotiators, so on Sept. 29 it locked the workers out.þþThough both sides held talks, aware President Bush was urging a resolution, the negotiations broke off indefinitely late Sunday after the union rejected the latest contract proposal.þþMeanwhile, nearly 200 ships laden with perishable food, Christmas toys and other cargo have been languishing off the U.S. coast.þþThe ILWU, a relatively small union, has thrived while larger unions have struggled in recent years because it controls what labor analyst Peter Olney calls a choke point in the economy: crucial access to Pacific Rim goods at ports requiring skilled laborers who can't easily be replaced.þþShipping lines have few options but to deal with the union along the West Coast, with Canadian ports under the influence of their own unionized dockworkers and Mexican ports unable to accommodate large container ships, said Olney, associate director of the Institute for Labor and Employment at the University of California, Berkeley, and a former ILWU organizer.þþ``The number of union members is not so significant as where are they and who are they,'' Olney said.þþAt rallies and meetings, ``they have almost 100 percent turnout and participation,'' he said. ``A lot of unions would be happy to get 10 percent.''þþThe skilled labor is crucial as well.þþHotel employees have had difficulty organizing because so many people are qualified to do the work, Olney said. Port jobs, on the other hand, require skills that can take years to master and often carry risks.þþ``Lashing containers on a rainy, wind-swept night on the deck of a cargo ship is an extremely dangerous job that takes a high degree of skill,'' he said. ``I always challenge my colleagues at the University of California to spend a night lashing containers on a ship. They wouldn't last 10 minutes.''þþThe longshoremen's union also has a reputation for militancy and formidable loyalty.þþEvery July 5, San Francisco Bay area ports sit idle as the union memorializes two men shot by police during a violent 1934 strike that helped create the ILWU and put longshoremen on the road to an elite position among trade unions.þþAnother walkout, in 1971, lasted 134 days, in part because the union feared shippers were trying to undercut union authority over container workers.þþToday, the fight is largely over a plan by shipping companies to computerize cargo tracking. The union wants any jobs impacted by the new technology to remain under its control.þþIt's the latest version of a battle the union has been fighting for decades over modernization. Every contract negotiated in the past 40 years has dealt with the impact of technology on jobs, which in the 1950s had numbered about 100,000. In 1960, the union agreed to allow widespread use of giant cargo containers.þþ``I don't think we're given enough credit for when the ships are moving out of here,'' said Robert Bennett, 48, who has worked as a longshoreman in the San Francisco area for 11 years. With only a high school education, he has made as much as $80,000, the average for full-time dock work in the ILWU. The most experienced foremen can earn $167,000.þþ``We do an awful good job,'' he said. ``It's a dangerous job, and people get killed every year here.''þþIndeed, five union workers have died on the job this year at West Coast ports.þþDuring the current lockout, some unions have criticized the ILWU's actions. In Washington, shippers laid off employees represented by the Machinists Union, citing safety reasons.þþ``We have in excess of 300 members that are unemployed at this time because of the threats and intimidation being brought by the ILWU,'' said Robert James, president of Machinists District 289. ``We are upset. We would just as soon be at work, earning money and supporting our families.''þþFor others, however, the ILWU has become an example of what a trade union can accomplish.þþ``Many unions envy the fact that they have the kind of power they do to close down an entire industry,'' said Miguel Contreras, executive director of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, whose members include recently unionized janitors and hotel workers.þþ``It's always about the boss versus the workers for many union people,'' he said.þþ
Source: NY Times
