Shipping companies and longshoremen continued negotiating yesterday after a contract deadline as the two sides vowed to redouble efforts to reach an agreement to prevent a shutdown of 29 West Coast ports.þþThe longshoremen's union says it has made no plans to strike. But officials with the management group, the Pacific Maritime Association, said they feared that the union would engage in a work slowdown that would cripple port operations.þþThe two sides agreed late last night to extend their contract on a day-to-day basis during the talks, The Associated Press reported.þþEarlier, Joseph Miniace, the association's president, sought to discourage a slowdown by warning yesterday that the ports would lock out the 10,500 longshoremen if management detected a slowdown.þþA lockout or a severe slowdown at ports from San Diego to Seattle could hurt the nation's economy by delaying shipments to tens of thousands of stores, auto dealers and factories. The West Coast ports handled about $300 billion in cargo last year.þþÿIf the union strikes with pay by staging slowdowns at the terminals, the Pacific Maritime Association will be forced to consider a defensive shutdown,ÿ Mr. Miniace said in a statement. ÿThe P.M.A. will not engage in an offensive lockout of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.ÿþþSteve Stallone, a union spokesman, said union members had no intention of staging a slowdown. But in words that raised the possibility of a clash, Mr. Stallone suggested that many workers might exercise their right to refuse to work overtime, a move that would essentially slow work.þþThe maritime association said it would take a hard line toward any slowdown. Many companies accused it of knuckling under in the 1999 negotiations after many union members refused to work overtime or took other measures to slow operations.þþMr. Miniace said the main issue in the talks was technology, specifically management's desire to increase the use of computers to speed shipments.þþHe said the ports and shipping companies sought the free flow of information so port computers could talk to other computers without having longshoremen engage in the expensive process of re-entering information that was already in the computers. Mr. Miniace said no longshoremen would lose jobs as a result of increased technology, but he said some workers would be retrained for other jobs.þþMr. Stallone said the union was not opposed to increased use of technology. But he added that many companies had already seized on new technologies to give nonunion employees work that had been done by union members.þþÿOur concern is that they will use this technology to outsource our jobs,ÿ Mr. Stallone said.þþThe union says the average longshoreman is paid $80,000 a year; management puts the average at $106,000.þþUnion officials said the main issue was management's refusal to maintain health and pension benefits at the current levels. They said management's health proposal would require union members and retirees to begin contributing toward their medical expenses.þþMr. Miniace insisted that under management's proposal, the workers would not have any out-of-pocket expenses for their medical care. He said the longshoremen were part of the small group of workers who have 100 percent of their health expenses covered. þþThe National Retail Federation has asked President Bush to press the two sides to do their utmost to avoid a shutdown of the ports. Some business have asked him to invoke the Taft-Hartley Act.þþWhite House officials say they are monitoring the situation.þ
Source: NY Times
