Western Ports Backup -- Was It Just One Guy?

A loaded truck leaves the Port of Long Beach Monday

After months of work slowdowns, ships began moving through West Coast ports (with the possible exception of Oakland) late Sunday.

The long event delayed the movement of billions of dollars of cargo across the Pacific.  Working through the backed-up shipments is expected to take at least three months, and possibly longer.

The reason for the slowdown was stalled progress in negotiations for a labor contract between the ILWU (International Longshore and Warehouse Union) and the PMA (Pacific Maritime Association.)  Port operators charged dockworkers with deliberately slowing production and union halls with failing to provide enough workers to process traffic.  By the end of the slowdown, the union said port operators were refusing to do any business on some days, including a three-day weekend when shifts on two of the days would be at premium pay.

Eventually the U.S. Labor Secretary and prominent politicians became concerned.  All remembered 2002, when a 10-day port shutdown cost the American economy an estimated billion dollars.  (Much more traffic goes through the west's 29 ports these days.)  Pressure was applied, and a deal was reached in time for the new week.


Was the Slowdown About Just One Guy?

Earlier in the weekend, I spoke with a man who has years of experience working in and observing a major port on the other side of the country.

"My initial reaction," he said, "was that the longshoremen were responsible for what happened out there.  In the East, you have problems with the mobs, but at least you can pay them off.  Those guys on the West Coast are tough."

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There is some evidence that ILWU was willing to prolong the slowdown for months because of one man:  David Miller.

Miller is a former port clerk and ILWU member. The union nominated him for an arbitrator's job at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach in 2002, a job he has held ever since.  He settles disputes between the union and the port, usually about compliance with terms of the labor contract.

The ILWU apparently believed that David Miller had gone over to the dark side.

Last week, the ILWU president wrote a letter saying the PMA was "retaining arbitrators who have openly engaged in conduct that clearly compromises their impartiality, including the development of close and personal relationships that affect decision-making."

Miller told the Associated Press last week that the written complaint was a reference to him.  Miller thinks that some decision of his -- he doesn't know which one -- upset someone in the union, and that person orchestrated a very broad and expensive retaliation.

A Los Angeles Congresswoman who backs the union said last week that ILWU leaders had told her Miller was "too close" to employers.

"A lot of my friends who are in the industry have called him personally and asked him to step down," she said, adding that Miller "doesn't think he has done anything wrong."

Terms of the new contract have not been released, but it will not be surprising if David Miller soon finds himself looking for another job.

In fact, the hiring and firing of arbitrators seems to have been the final and most contentious sticking point in almost 10 months of contract negotiations.

Unknown for now is whether the new contract includes ILWU language to allow it, or the PMA, to dismiss arbitrators unilaterally at the end of every contract period.  The PMA argued that this would allow for the firing of arbitrators who make unpopular decisions and would push arbitrators to make decisions based less on facts and more on their wish for continued employment.

Such language also raises the possibility that, by dismissing an arbitrator at the end of an employment contract, either party could make selecting a new arbitrator an issue in the next contract negotiation.


ILWU Leverage

This was probably the last good year for the ILWU to hold strong to its positions.

Next year, when the enlarged Panama Canal reopens, port customers will have more options, such as shipping directly between the East Coast and Asia, avoiding the stop and transfer of goods on the West Coast.  This could have an effect on pricing, which may not favor ports in the west or better terms for dockworkers.

In addition, the union may have reached terms to allow it to keep its rich healthcare plan -- dubbed a Cadillac plan because of its price -- for five years without arguing with the PMA about who will pay the 40 percent tax ordered for such plans, an Affordable Care Act provision that is scheduled to go into effect in 2018.