West Coast Ports Closed

West Coast cargo ports were shut down indefinitely Sunday night after a chaotic day on the waterfront that dashed hopes for a truce between dockworkers and shipping lines, now in their fifth month of troubled contract talks.

Hundreds of cargo-laden ships from San Diego to Seattle were stranded when the Pacific Maritime Assn., which represents international shipping lines and U.S.-based terminal operators, locked out union workers at the start of the 6 p.m. shift.

Leaders of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union insisted they had done nothing to provoke the action. But the Pacific Maritime Assn. cited dozens of examples of what it said were deliberate acts by the union to slow or halt the flow of cargo. Among them were failures to provide crane operators and the misplacing of cargo containers in terminal yards.

Association officials said it would cost more to run the ports at diminished productivity--with union members paid for doing little or no work--than it would to shut them down.

“I will not pay workers to strike,” said Joseph Miniace, president of the Pacific Maritime Assn.

Miniace said the lockout would continue until the union signs a new contract or agrees to extend its expired contract. Under contract, any slowdown is subject to arbitration, which could lead to penalties for the union.

In the event of a protracted shutdown, the Bush administration has indicated that it would consider invoking the Taft-Hartley Act, which would reopen the ports for an 80-day cooling-off period.

The 29 ports handle about half of the nation’s ocean-going cargo, including imports of cars, electronics, garments, housewares and sporting goods.

Citing potential damage to the national economy, the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service late Sunday called for both sides to immediately “stand down their economic pressures” and resume normal work schedules.

Director Peter J. Hurtgen urged negotiators for the union and the shipping association to meet in his office in Washington, D.C., on Thursday morning.

The Pacific Maritime Assn. said it would accept the offer of mediation. A union spokesman did not return calls seeking comment, but the union has refused similar offers in recent weeks, saying it prefers to deal directly with the shipping lines.

Negotiations have bogged down over the association’s desire to introduce new technology such as scanners, sensors and remote cameras, which will cost union jobs. In exchange, the union wants to expand its jurisdiction, set minimum staffing levels, and control the flow of all information through the terminals.

After a week of sporadic slowdowns, the Pacific Maritime Assn. on Friday night locked workers out for a 36-hour cooling-off period. But when the terminals reopened Sunday morning, the association alleged that slowdowns continued.

When the new lockout was called Sunday night, vessels were already backed up in harbors and being forced to anchor outside the breakwaters. Many more ships were due to arrive today, including 23 at Los Angeles-Long Beach.

“This is bad. Very bad,” said Robin Lanier, executive director of the West Coast Waterfront Coalition, which represents retailers and manufacturers that use the ports. “We’ve already got a backed-up situation, and it’s going to get progressively worse. And everybody’s terrified of what this does to the stock market tomorrow.”

Union members were incensed by the Pacific Maritime Assn.’s decision for another lockout and quickly set up picket lines at terminals in Los Angeles and Long Beach. “They want to play this game? They can go ahead and play it,” said Ramon Ponce de Leon Jr., president of the union’s Local 13 in Los Angeles.

Ponce de Leon said he had been on the docks all day Sunday, trying to ensure that jobs were filled. “There is no slowdown,” he said.

He and other union leaders accused the Pacific Maritime Assn. of instigating a crisis in the hope that it would lead to federal intervention, which they say would favor the industry.

The mood at Local 13 headquarters was grim as union members gathered for picket duty. “We’re going to have men at the gates,” Ponce de Leon said. “It’s going to get ugly.”

At a rally in front of the Longshore Memorial Hall adjacent to Los Angeles port terminals, ILWU President James Spinosa fired up the crowd of about 200, telling dockworkers that the union would not be intimidated.

“We have been a responsible union,” Spinosa said. “They have been outsourcing in many directions the work that is rightfully ours. We embrace technology changes, but let’s do it together.”

“The union built this waterfront over the past 50 years,” added Spinosa, who was joined at the rally by Miguel Contreras, chief of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, and other labor leaders.

An extended shutdown of the West Coast ports would be economically devastating, according to a study conducted for the Pacific Maritime Assn. by the Martin Associates consulting firm in Lancaster, Pa.

A five-day shutdown would cost the national economy an estimated $4.7 billion in lost wages and other costs, according to the study. Exporters of perishable goods would probably have to ship items by air freight instead of by sea. But the larger effect would be on retailers, who won’t have the same volume of goods to sell, and as a result won’t have as much sales revenue to fund additional purchases.

“The lost sales of the imported commodities will have a ripple effect throughout the nation’s retail support sector, creating negative impacts in such support activity as local warehousing and distribution, advertising, wholesale activity and packaging,” the study said.

The costs would snowball, with a 10-day shutdown costing the economy an estimated $19.4 billion, the study concluded.

Only a small portion of the cargo arriving on the West Coast could be diverted to Atlantic ports, according to Martin Associates and other experts, because most container vessels cannot fit through the Panama Canal, and East Coast ports are not equipped to handle the Pacific container ships’ size and volume of cargo.

With the stakes high for resolving the dispute, both sides had said Saturday that they were prepared to put in a normal day when terminal gates reopened along the coast Sunday morning. But the situation deteriorated quickly. One hour after the 8 a.m. start time, many jobs had not been filled.

Cranes that were operated were moving slowly. Truckers, who had hoped to make up for the previous day’s closing, were backed up in two lanes for more than a quarter of a mile at terminals in Los Angeles and Long Beach. After waiting several hours, some drivers made U-turns and left in frustration.

At the new Pier 400 in Los Angeles, the largest container terminal in the world, a security guard closed the gates and waved truckers away at 10 a.m., saying crane operators had not arrived. The announcement was greeted with honking and jeers from drivers, some of whom had already waited more than two hours.

“We’re losing money,” said one independent trucker, Armen Chibukhchyan, who is paid by the trip. “I’ve been waiting here since 7:30. I have another load to take to Rancho Dominguez and, at this rate, I don’t know if we’re going to make it.”

Another trucker, who gave his name as Al, considered himself lucky. At 2 p.m., he was leaving the Evergreen terminal with his second haul of the day. Normally he makes seven or eight trips.

“I hope this stops soon,” he said. “The dockworkers inside are not working. These slowdowns are very irritating. Sometimes I have to wait five or six hours to get one container. Making two to three moves a day is not enough. That’s about $120 for me, my family and to take care of my truck. And that’s just not enough.”

Overall, productivity was down 54%, although it dropped most dramatically in Portland, Ore., and Oakland, according to figures provided by the Pacific Maritime Assn.

Despite increasing volumes of Pacific Rim trade, the shipping lines and terminal operators that compose the Pacific Maritime Assn. have been hurt by an excess of shipping capacity, which has forced them to keep rates low.

The ILWU represents 10,500 dockworkers who are among the highest-paid blue-collar workers, making about $80,000 to $150,000 annually with overtime.