THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, August 10, 1996 TAG: 9608100268
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CHRISTOPHER DINSMORE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 65 lines
The International Longshoremen's Association is threatening to strike East and Gulf Coast ports if it doesn't get the same raises just offered to West Coast longshoremen.
Such a strike would paralyze the port of Hampton Roads where about 2,000 longshoremen handle cargo at the region's five marine cargo terminals.
Hampton Roads is the second largest general cargo port on the East Coast. About 9 million tons of general cargo was shipped through the port last year.
ILA President John Bowers made the threat Wednesday at a conference in Baltimore, according to the Journal of Commerce, a trade industry newspaper. The ILA represents thousands of dockworkers in ports from Maine to Texas.
Shipping lines have said they can't afford to give the ILA what they agreed to with the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union, the West Coast union, Bowers said.
``With that attitude there will be a strike on Sept. 30,'' Bowers said.
ILA workers in Hampton Roads have not gone out on strike since the 1970s.
The coastwide ILA labor contract for handling containerized cargo expires Sept. 30. Negotiations have been ongoing since last year.
The talks have been characterized a ``good, open dialogue'' by Roger Geisinger, president and chief negotiator of the Hampton Roads Shipping Association, which represents the employers of ILA labor in Hampton Roads - shipping lines, stevedores and terminals.
But the generous labor contract on the West Coast changes the situation.
``We've got another fight on our hands, which is more than we wanted,'' Geisinger said.
West Coast dockworkers got a 3-year agreement featuring pay increases of $2 an hour in the first year and $1 an hour in the second year. The raises bring the base wage of West Coast longshoremen to $25.68 an hour, more than $3 an hour more than similar workers on the East and Gulf Coast now make.
``Ever since the West Coast got their agreement, we have had a serious problem in the negotiations,'' Bowers said. ``My members have come to me and said `We're all longshoremen, we all do the same job. We can't sign for less than what they gave them.' ''
Management interests on the East Coast are ``positioning ourselves for some give backs,'' Geisinger said. He declined to be specific.
The West Coast agreement also expanded the union's jurisdiction into harbor trucking, an area that has traditionally been the milieu of small trucking companies and independent owners and operators.
ILA port representatives on the East Coast are also discussing the possibility of creating a coastwide contract for handling noncontainer cargo such as bulk and break-bulk cargos.
These discussions may be holding up the proposed labor deal at Lambert's Point Docks in Norfolk, which was supposed to make that struggling terminal competitive.
``It's been on temporary hold because of the negotiations,'' said Edward L. Brown, ILA vice president in Norfolk.
Labor agreements for break-bulk and bulk cargos have been handled at the port level rather than coastwide as with containers.
One port official suggested the Lambert's Point deal could be a model for a coastwide break-bulk cargo agreement.
ILA locals in Hampton Roads agreed to fix the wage for unloading break-bulk cargos such as cocoa beans, rubber and plywood at $15 an hour at Lambert's Point Docks. Currently longshoremen earn $15 to $21 an hour based on seniority. Warehouse wages for Lambert's Point cargo would be $8 to $10 an hour, down from the current $12. MEMO: The Journal of Commerce contributed to this report. by CNB