Shipping companies, dockworkers reach tentative contract

SAN FRANCISCO -- West Coast dockworkers and shipping companies have reached a tentative contract agreement that could end the drawn-out labor dispute that shut down the coast's major ports for 10 days and prompted the president to intervene.

The six-year deal would provide wage and benefit improvements for union members, plus technology and dispute-resolution improvements that the companies needed, said Peter Hurtgen, head of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service.

He praised both sides, saying lead negotiators "demonstrated statesmenlike leadership, which made this agreement possible."

The agreement, reached late Saturday, still must be ratified by a majority of the 10,500 members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. A caucus of about 100 union members will meet Dec. 7 to vote on the contract, and the entire rank-and-file will probably vote on it in early January, according to union president Jim Spinosa.

The major sticking points in the negotiations had centered on the desire by the Pacific Maritime Association, the industry group, for computerized cargo tracking systems that will make dockside work more efficient, but also cost an estimated 400 jobs. The union, in return, wanted increased compensation and pension benefits.

'A new era'

"With this contract we are ushering in a new era of modernization," Joseph Miniace, president of the PMA, said Sunday.

"Workers can harness technology and make it work for them," said AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka, who joined the negotiations. "They can bridle it, saddle it and ride it to job, pension and economic security."

Hurtgen declined to give details of the agreement but expressed confidence workers would be pleased.

"I think once they see the magnitude of the pension increases, the wage increases -- it would be phenomenal if they were to turn that down," he said.

Miniace said health care costs are expected to nearly double from $220 million a year to $500 million by the end of the deal. Pensions, he said, will end up costing companies more then $1 billion.

Sources familiar with the negotiations said workers can expect raises of 10 to 15 percent over the six years.

In Tacoma, Wash., local union Vice President Dick Marzano said workers were glad to have an agreement before the Dec. 27 end to a Taft-Hartley cooling-off period that President Bush imposed.

The dockworkers' previous contract expired in July.

The shippers' association had locked out dockworkers at the 29 major Pacific ports for 10 days, leading President Bush to invoke the Taft-Hartley law to open the docks Oct. 9 to avoid an economic crisis. The ports handle more than $300 billion in trade each year.

The union's top lawyer, Rob Remar, said hard feelings among rank-and-file over use of Taft-Hartley could complicate ratification. "There's a real bitterness that is going to linger with them for a long time," he said.

The lockout began after the companies accused the union of an illegal work slowdown to gain leverage in the contract negotiations.

Taft-Hartley has been invoked 11 times in port disputes in the past. Only nine were successfully resolved.