New contract ends strike at La/Long Beach ports
After an eight-day strike that crippled the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, clerical workers from a local office of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union have agreed to a new contract with the terminal operators at the ports.
Union members returned to work yesterday, reported the New York Times.
As the strike dragged into its second week, both sides had come under increasing pressure from local officials to end the dispute, which had threatened to derail the Southern California economy during the holiday season.
Officials from the Port of Long Beach estimated that US$650 million in trade has been idled each day of the strike and a federal mediator arrived on Tuesday to help broker a deal.
"I am pleased to announce that an agreement has been reached between labour and management that will bring to an end the eight-day strike that has cost our local economy billions of dollars," Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said.
"With the strike ending, we must waste no time in getting the nation's busiest port complex's operations back up to speed."
Although only about 600 clerical workers had been participating in the strike, they managed to shut down 10 of the 14 shipping container terminals at the two ports, because thousands of longshoremen from the union would not cross the picket lines.
"This victory was accomplished because of support from the entire family of 10,000 members" of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union in the harbour community, Robert McEllrath, the president of the union, said in a statement announcing the agreement.
Neither the union nor the terminal operators offered details of the new contract agreement.
Steve Getzug, a spokesman for the Harbour Employers Association, which represents the terminal operators, said the union voted on the proposal from the employers on Tuesday shortly before the federal mediator arrived.
He added that the deal included "some compromise on staffing issues that were important to the employers".
"And, importantly, a deal has been reached," Getzug said.