Port Clerks OK Pact, Avert Strike

Clerical workers and the representatives of 14 shipping lines averted a strike at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach late Friday night when they reached a tentative agreement on a new three-year contract.

The deal gives shipping lines what they want: the right to add new technology that will allow customers more efficient access to information they need to move products. But the 750-member office clerical unit of Local 63 of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union also made gains, according to officials close to the talks.

Local 63 negotiated a no-layoff clause for the life of the contract. Members also obtained a pay increase, raising starting wages from $33 to $37.50 an hour over three years, and improvements in their pension and 401K plans.

“It was a lot of persistence and reasonable compromise on both sides,” said attorney Stephen Berry, lead negotiator for the shipping lines.

John Fageaux Jr., president of the office clerical unit, added: “We’re very satisfied with the outcome. We got the job security language we were looking for and it still allows employers to introduce new technology.”

The clerical unit handles all paperwork for the shipping lines in their dealings with customers and the government.

Fageaux said that the technology part of the contract was similar to that reached early last year by the parent ILWU, which represents about 11,000 dockworkers at West Coast ports and shipping lines. Any positions created by new technology would be unionized.

The tentative agreement must be ratified by the union’s rank and file during a vote set for Thursday. One week ago, negotiations had broken off and the union had threatened to call a strike that would have shut down much of the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports’ business.

If the unit had gone on strike, the Long Beach and Los Angeles locals of the ILWU have said they would have backed them. The agreement will be welcome news at the ports, which have been struggling to keep up with record trade levels that have strained resources.