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Date: Sun, Dec 2nd, 2012
 
 

Employers' Latest Proposals Offer Additional Concessions to Get Los Angeles and Long Beach Ports Working Again


Clerks' refusal to drop pickets and end their strike threatens to keep hundreds of thousands of workers off the job and cargo idle into a second week

 

LOS ANGELES (Dec. 2, 2012, 3:30 p.m. PST) - The negotiating teams representing employers at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach released the following statement regarding the status of negotiations with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 63 Office Clerical Unit ("OCU"):


Last night, in their latest bid to get the ports working again, the harbor employers offered the OCU new proposals containing further concessions in connection with the OCU's "featherbedding" demands -- the requirements that employers call in temporary workers and hire new employees even if there is no work for those individuals to perform.  The OCU immediately rejected the proposals.


In addition to their latest concessions on staffing, the employers continue to offer wage and pension increases, an absolute job guarantee against layoffs, and a promise to maintain all other OCU benefits that the employers have previously offered -- all of which would bring the average annual OCU wage-and-benefits package to more than $190,000 over the next three and one-half years.


The weeklong strike by the clerks is now expected to extend into a second week, leaving hundreds of thousands of people who support port operations without work and severely impacting the local and national economies.  The strike's impact is widening and is already costing the national economy billions of dollars by many estimates.  Sadly, the OCU continues to put the self-interests of 600 members ahead of the local community, the ports' future viability, and the economic welfare of an entire country.


About the Los Angeles/Long Beach Harbor Employers Association


The Los Angeles/Long Beach Harbor Employers Association is a not-for-profit association representing shipping agencies and terminal operators in Southern California. The Association assists its members in matters relating to the employment of ILWU Local 63 office clerical employees, including the administration of the labor contracts of member companies.
Link: http://www.harboremployers.com/web/news/press/details/?LOS-ANGELES-LONG-BEACH-WATERFRONT-LABOR-NEGOTIATIONS-UPDATE-64