Tentative deal reached to end costly Calif. ports strike

Shipping containers stacked up as dock operations were halted during 8-day strike by clerks at Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, Calif. / AP

Updated 3:05 a.m. ET

Negotiators reached an agreement late Tuesday to end an eight-day strike that crippled the nation's largest port complex and prevented shippers from delivering billions of dollars in cargo to warehouses and distribution centers across the country.

"I'm really pleased to tell all of you that my 10,000 longshore workers in the ports of LA and Long Beach are going to start moving cargo on these ships," said Ray Familathe, vice president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. "We're going to get cargo moved throughout the supply chain and the country and get everybody those that they're looking for in those stores."

Striking clerical workers and the longshoremen who refused to cross their picket lines will be back on the job Wednesday morning, said Stephen Berry of the Los Angeles/Long Beach Harbor Employers Association.

The union still has to ratify the contract Wednesday but officials said that shouldn't be a problem., according to CBS station KCBS-TV in Los Angeles.

The deal to end the strike was announced by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who emerged from the talks just a few hours after he had escorted in the federal mediators who had just arrived from Washington.

"I think it's appropriate to say, 'Mission accomplished,"' Villaraigosa said.

• Ports walkout cost U.S. economy more than $1B a day

Days of negotiations that included all-night bargaining sessions suddenly went from a stalemate to big leaps of progress by Tuesday. Villaraigosa said the sides were already prepared to take a vote when the mediators arrived.

The federal mediators said they had little to do with the solution.

"In the final analysis, it worked. The parties reached their own agreement, said George Cohen, director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. "There is no question in my mind that collective bargaining is the best example of industrial democracy in action."

The strike began Nov. 27, when about 400 members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union's local clerical workers unit walked off their jobs. The clerks had been working without a contract for more than two years.

The walkout quickly closed 10 of the ports' 14 terminals when some 10,000 dockworkers, members of the clerks' sister union, refused to cross picket lines.

At issue during the lengthy negotiations was the union's contention that terminal operators wanted to outsource future clerical jobs out of state and overseas, an allegation the shippers denied.

Shippers said they wanted the flexibility not to fill jobs that were no longer needed as clerks quit or retired. They said they promised the current clerks lifetime employment.

During the strike, both sides said salaries, vacation, pensions and other benefits were not a major issue.

The clerks, who make an average base salary of $87,000 a year, have some of the best-paying blue-collar jobs in the nation. When vacation, pension and other benefits are factored in, the employers said, their annual compensation package reached $165,000 a year.

"We know we're blessed," one of the strikers, Trinnie Thompson, said during the walkout. "We're very thankful for our jobs. We just want to keep them."

Union leaders said if future jobs were not kept at the ports, the result would be another section of the U.S. economy taking a serious economic hit so that huge corporations could increase their profit margins by exploiting people in other states and countries who would be forced to work for less.

Combined, the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports handle about 44 percent of all cargo that arrives in the U.S. by sea. About $1 billion a day in merchandise, including cars from Japan and computers from China, flow past its docks.

Shuttering 10 of the ports' 14 terminals kept about $760 million a day in cargo from being delivered, according to port officials. The cargo stacked up on the docks and in adjacent rail yards or, in many cases, remained on arriving ships. Some of those ships were diverted to other ports along the West Coast.

"We're delighted that the terminals will be operating again, that the cargo will be flowing," said Berry.

The clerks handle such tasks as filing invoices and billing notices, arranging dock visits by customs inspectors, and ensuring that cargo moves off the dock quickly and gets where it's supposed to go.

The $1 billion a day in cargo that moves through the busy port terminals is loaded on trucks and trains that take it to warehouses and distribution centers across the country.

[loveoflife]

People, everyone needs a job. Look at the economy, if this Fiscal=cliff does not pass we will pay more in Social Security, probably why strike was on.

I as a lady have worked the docks, at another time they decided to go on strike. I had to get the boxes out of the containers to send to NY, then I had to laugh because nothing was salvagable, so-called leather jackets were white.
Everything will be ruined in those containers, retailers will sell them at cost & we will pay that price.

China, Vietnam other countries make these items & they can buy them for Wholessale at about 2.00 or a little more
may be wrong. Even your high quality items, wil be ruined. Think of the food or toys that sitting in these containers
I would not buy them.
As for the men striking, they know why the strike went on, so they will have benefits, money, and a job.

If this Fiscal-cliff does not pass Congress, they will not worry , nor will the CEO, COO, CAO, or other High
corporate people. & others in Washington DC.
Only us who are making money.

Romney did not grow up Rich, Spinner was right. The speech his wife gave was Bull...."we had an iron borad to eat off of" She is another one whom I am glad did not get in the White House-she does not have any Education.
At least Michelle Obama does & so does Barack.

To be honest they will need West Coast Ports to transport to cities around there , then move them to East Coast .
Ah there is nothing wrong with a Mexican, is it the color of his skin or how he got here?

Lets not scream or put down one another we are all Americans no matter how we got here. Look at how many came through NY? Maybe was one of your ancestors too.

There is to much rasicsm in this country already-the divide between Rich and Poor, Middle class is horrible.
Many people cannot find jobs, many live in cars,

Lets be kind to each other, we have Free speech etc.


Thanks for reading

Sophia

[nonfollower]

No matter what we think or say its good to see americans stand up for once and let people know who makes the wheels turn cause its not ceos.Good thing we at the resturuant industry can not strike YOU WOULD ALL STARVE YOU UNFEELING LETHARGIC FAT RETARDS.You should not be putting people down for standing up.If more of you would stand up against these powers that be then you might be able to save a slice of future for your children.But as it stands now these corporations are using so much resources that i fear you children will be fighting for WATER not OIL.WAKE UP you TALKING MONKEYS!!!!Its time to exact some real CHANGE!!!!!!!

[Krowster]

This is exactly what this country needs more of, the people striking against greed and power. For some idiotic reason, companies think this is a owner's market, a place where they get to dictate salaries and rules. That is the perception they want to communicate, it's also the perception Hostess communicated, and were did it get them!

There's only so much American can do when the job market started squeezing them into a salary position, fight back and strike. As this article shows, when enough people have had enough, then the greedy and special interest succumb. Go American workforce.

[uid_zero]

Unions are big business, just like corporations, except they have little to no risk, capital investments, or really a product that is sold. They are just paid protection money by the employees of companies that actually produce products. Unions are nothing more than a parasite in today's world.

[MrLiterally]

Thank goodness for unions. Wish I had more union presence in my job; they work us to death and we can never get in our full amount of vacation each year, have to carry over.

[saturn05]

So these 10,000 people are ruining the economy for millions. Good job port workers and thanks for making things worse for everyone.

[mav547166]

When Panama is finished with their expansion of the canal these union guys will be out of work because everything will come through Texas.

[Cigar_Smoker]

I wouldn't be surprised if the port workers in Texas were unionized too. Spend a day working with the guys loading and unloading these ships, I have. You will quickly understand why they have a union.

[lordanson]

Wowwwww! The jug-earred One sends in a few of his agents and PRESTO! What was unsolvable only twelve hours ago is now happiness, bliss, and hugs all around.

[TTWCS]

I bet that there's thousands of people that would LOVE to have a job as a clerk making 75K not even including benefits, and THESE jackasses strike because they are worried about their jobs in the future. Do like President Reagan did to the Air Traffic Controllers FIRE ALL OF THEM!!! Unions SUCK, they did good 100 years ago, but today, not only no, but HELL NO, they are out dated and only hurt the country.

[HomerDodge]

Please, just give the Union-oids whatever they want! Give in!!!
Get America moving right now -- it's important if you care about the economy at all.

It is completely unimportant what happens in the short term because Panama and Mexico are building intermodal ports that dwarf LA and Long Beach ports. Only 3 more years and this union crap will be obsolete except for lettuce. Economics will price the unions out of work forever.

Rail and trucks do not need west-coast ports to grow anymore.

California docks are dead docks walking and will be drained dry soon.
3 years.. that's all they have left. Economic competition will win.
Then, CA can strike until the jerks are dry docked themselves.

Go China!!!