Two Bustling West Coast Ports Face Union Action

Two Bustling West Coast 

Ports Face Union Action

• Updated November 20, 2012, 7:45 p.m. ET

Two Bustling West Coast 

Ports Face Union Action

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142412788732471250457813147205752485...

By JOEL MILLMAN

Two big West Coast maritime ports—in Oakland, Calif., and Portland, Ore.—are dealing with strikes or the threat of organized labor action ahead of the busy holiday season.

On Tuesday, striking workers of the Service Employees International Union disrupted shipping at the Port of Oakland. Meanwhile, a strike notice by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union has been posted for Portland's docks on Sunday, if progress in a contract dispute isn't made before then.

The actions aren't coordinated, but they are related, since unions frequently respect each other's picket lines in labor disputes. After 200 custodians, janitors and maintenance workers affiliated with local 1021 of the SEIU went on strike at the Port of Oakland Monday night, the ILWU local there stayed off the job Tuesday morning.

Members of the Service Employees International Union take part in a strike Tuesday at the Port of Oakland, the West Coast's third busiest.

The actions come ahead of the busy holiday shipping season, but they aren't expected to affect Black Friday sales, since products have already reached warehouses or store shelves for the biggest shopping day of the year.

Oakland handled over 2.3 million seaborne containers in 2011, making it the West Coast's third-busiest port after Los Angeles and Long Beach, Calif., according to trade group American Association of Port Authorities. Portland's wharves handled less than a tenth the volume of Oakland's, with just less than 200,000 containers last year. But it is a big player in trans-Pacific grain shipments, which are growing thanks to soaring demand for U.S. farm exports in China, Japan and South Korea.

In Oakland, port officials said Tuesday that striking disrupted trucking and some pier activity at export terminals on the waterfront, though operations at Oakland International Airport were normal throughout the day.

SEIU spokeswoman Anna Bakalis said the strike was called for just one day and was motivated by "unfair labor practices." The group wants to pressure the Port of Oakland to share financial information used to justify a request that SEIU workers accept a 15% cut in wages and benefits, she said.

"We have been without a contact for 16 months now," said Ms. Bakalis. "We hope to get back to the bargaining table."

Isaac Kos-Read, director of external affairs at the Port of Oakland, said management has "been in regular contact with SEIU all along the way, providing any and all information they have requested, most of which is publicly available on our website." He said the Port of Oakland reached agreement with the SEIU bargaining team in March "on a deal that would have preserved above-average wages, but this deal was voted down by membership."

In Portland, a state mediator called for talks on Tuesday between Port of Portland officials and ILWU members. Local 28 of the ILWU gave notice of a strike to begin this weekend after months of contract talks have failed.

"We still hope to reach a settlement," said ILWU spokesman Craig Merrilees, adding he didn't know if rank-and-file longshoremen would stay off the job and refuse to load grain ships if the Portland guards strike. "It would be up to those workers what they want to do," he said.
Write to Joel Millman at joel.millman@wsj.com