Port clerks and their employers at the nation's largest port complex
tentatively agreed on a new contract last Thursday, preventing a strike
at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. The deal with the Office
Clerical Unit, Local 63, of the International Longshore and Warehouse
Union came after an impasse in the talks was declared late Tuesday. The
15,000-member ILWU had indicated that longshoremen would honor picket
lines if the 750 clerical workers went on strike.
That could have effectively stopped the loading and unloading of cargo
at the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, a complex that accounts for
more than 40% of all the cargo container traffic coming into the U.S.
