Operations shut down briefly Tuesday at three major terminals at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach when dockworkers refused to cross picket lines established during a wildcat strike by independent drivers.



Partial operations resumed at about 11 am PST after the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), which represents terminal operators and container lines, persuaded an arbitrator that the picket lines were not legitimate because the truckers are not represented by a collective bargaining unit. As a result, members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), which represent dockworkers at the terminals, were ordered to return to work.

 

The work action by ILWU was ostensibly unrelated to its ongoing contract negotiations with the PMA. The PMA and ILWU agreed late Monday to take a 72-hour break from negotiations on a new coast-wide contract while the ILWU attends to an unrelated negotiation taking place in the Pacific Northwest.

 

The two parties said that during the break, which ends at 8 a.m. on Friday, July 11, the parties have agreed to extend the previous six-year contract, which expired last week. The PMA and ILWU have been negotiating a new contract covering nearly 20,000 longshore workers at 29 West Coast ports since May 12.

 

 

The two parties have never been able to reach an agreement before expiration of the existing contract and have said they expect port operations to remain normal as long as they remain at the negotiating table. ILWU members, however, traditionally never cross picket lines in a sign of solidarity with other workers.

 

 

The truckers’ wildcat strike started Monday when independently employed drivers walked off the job at three Los Angeles trucking companies that haul imports from terminals at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach for Walmart, Home Depot, Skechers Shoes, Polo/Ralph Lauren and U.S. military bases. In a statement issued to the media, the drivers said the work action marked “a dramatic escalation” from three prior strikes over the last 11 months, which lasted 24-48 hours. The strike had closed down terminals operated by APL and Evergreen at the Port of Los Angeles and LBCT at the Port of Long Beach, according to industry sources. Picket lines had also be set up at the ITS and TTI terminals.

 

 

While the drivers are not unionized, they have been working with the Teamsters to unionize after decades of declining wages.

 

 

“In a desperate quest to maintain the status quo, company owners are firing, intimidating, and countersuing drivers; countersuing state agencies, filing appeals on trial court decisions; and filing to compel arbitration to stay government proceedings,” the drivers said in a statement released by Justice for Port Drivers. “These companies are continuing to retaliate against their employees for engaging in union and protected concerted activities. They are threatening and otherwise intimidating, restraining, and coercing employees in the exercise of their rights under the National Labor Relations Act.”