West Coast ports to shut down 4 days amid labor dispute

Container ships sit moored at the Port of Oakland last week as a work slowdown at West Coast ports continues amid dockworker negotiations. Container ships sit moored at the Port of Oakland last week as a work slowdown at West Coast ports continues amid dockworker negotiations. Photo: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images Photo: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images Image 1 of / 10 Caption Close West Coast ports to shut down 4 days amid labor dispute 1 / 10 Back to Gallery

The cargo ships stuck in a traffic jam as they wait for a spot at the Port of Oakland won’t get a presidential break this holiday weekend after loading and unloading operations were suspended at 29 West Coast seaports for four days.

The Pacific Maritime Association, which represents shipping lines and terminal operators, is refusing to pay overtime to longshoremen for weekend and holiday work. The move is the Association’s response to what it claims are union work stoppages and slowdowns that have caused crippling delays and devastating economic losses.

“What they’re doing amounts to a strike with pay,” said Wade Gates, the association spokesman, about the slowdowns and stoppages, “and we will reduce the extent to which we pay premium rates for such a strike.”

The association announced Wednesday that it will not hire crews to move containers at ports on the West Coast, including Oakland, starting Thursday, which is Lincoln’s birthday, and continuing Saturday, Sunday and Monday, which is Presidents Day.

Contract expired July 1

The shipping employers also idled vessel loading and unloading last weekend, adding fuel to an already volatile dispute with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, which represents 20,000 dockworkers, whose contract ran out July 1.

Work delays and stoppages over the past three months have caused mounting problems for Bay Area importers and small-business owners, who say they are losing money as trucks line up daily outside the Port of Oakland waiting for container ships anchored in San Francisco Bay to unload.

The shutting down of port operations is ironic because it’ll make the situation worse, said union officials who claimed the association canceled a negotiating session Wednesday and has not been available since last Friday.

“This is an effort by the employers to put economic pressure on our members and to gain leverage in contract talks,” said Robert McEllrath, president of the longshore and warehouse union. “The union is standing by ready to negotiate, as we have been for the past several days.”

The association offered the union what amounted to a 3 percent raise over five years, employer-paid health care and an 11 percent increase in pensions. The association claims the average dockworker makes $147,000 a year, but the union denies that, saying the typical salary is actually $83,000.

Money isn’t the primary issue, said Craig Merrilees, the ILWU spokesman. He said dockworkers are servicing larger ships, handling more cargo and dealing with increasing pressure to work fast under ever more dangerous conditions.

Safety tops pay

“Safety is a key issue,” Merrilees said. “The jobs on the docks are extremely dangerous. The fatality rate for longshore workers has exceeded the rates for police and firefighters.”

The steadily deteriorating situation has affected the 28 other ports between Seattle and San Diego, delaying merchandise deliveries up and down the coast. The maritime association is warning of a “coast-wide meltdown” if a settlement isn’t reached.

As it is, from a half-dozen to a dozen ships are anchored in the bay every day, awaiting a spot at the Oakland marine terminal. An equal number are stuck outside the Golden Gate because there is no room for them to anchor in the bay.

The Port of Oakland is the third-largest port in California and the fifth-biggest in the United States. The port employs only about 500 people, but there are thousands of ancillary jobs, including crane operators, cargo handlers, warehouse crews, railroad workers, customs officials and importers, all the way down to the taco stand operator.

Port officials, who are not involved in the negotiations, say union workers have cut production from an average of about 32 containers moved per hour in October to about 24 per hour this month, a noticeable decline.

Between 7,000 and 9,000 truckers pick up or drop off cargo at the port, and many of them have had to wait as long as eight hours to get into the terminal.

The blame-game rhetoric that followed the latest contract offer is typical of how things have been going.

Unreasonable demands

Gates said the longshoremen responded with unreasonable demands, including the right to fire arbitrators.

“The ILWU’s current slowdowns, now in their fourth month, show the very reason that we need a healthy arbitration system in place,” Gates said. “It is essential to be able to prevent the crippling slowdowns that are impacting workers and businesses across the nation.”

McEllrath said that is a gross mischaracterization.

“It seems to us that the employers are trying to sabotage negotiations,” he said. “They are not just hurting workers, families and communities — what our employers are doing is bad for the industry and the U.S. economy.”

Peter Fimrite is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: pfimrite@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @pfimrite