Empty Holiday Shelves Hinge on 120 Los Angeles Truckers
By Lynn Doan Aug 4, 2014 8:53 AM ET
For executives at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the 120 disgruntled truck drivers who picketed for five days last month proved to be little more than a nuisance. Now the busiest U.S. ports face a potentially wider problem: 7,000 longshore workers joining them.
“The big question now is whether the longshoremen walk,” said Phillip Sanfield, a Port of Los Angeles spokesman. “There would be some impact if the truckers disrupt traffic. But if the longshoremen honor the picket lines? It’s much, much bigger.”
Should members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union refuse to cross the independent drivers’ picket line, it would put at risk a portion of the $435 billion worth of annual trade through Los Angeles and Long Beach, the two largest U.S. ports. That would pinch retailers, many of which have been struggling to increase sales this year, before the holiday shopping season.
West Coast longshoremen have worked without a contract since July 11. Talks between the union and employers represented by the Pacific Maritime Association are scheduled to resume today after a 10-day break. The old contract prohibited longshore employees from striking in support of the truck drivers. Now, without a contract, the longshoremen are free to join picket lines.
“This could happen, and it would be quite dramatic,” said Nelson Lichtenstein, director of the Center for the Study of Work, Labor and Democracy at the University of California at Santa Barbara. “It would shut the ports down. It would stop everything.”
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-04/empty-holiday-shelves-hinge-on-120-los-angeles-truckers.html
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