Shipping News

I don't know how many of you followed the clerical workers strike that recently shut down the Los Angeles and Long Beach Ports. The two sides are now in mediation. It was the craziest thing. I am normally pro labor but this thing is just ridiculous.

The Clerical Workers Union that operates at the ports are the highest paid clerical workers in the country. With benefits these people average $160,000.00 per year. They rejected an offer of $190,000.00 per year. CLERICAL WORKERS!

The standoff was between the Office Clerical Unit of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 63 and a group of shippers represented by the Los Angeles/Long Beach Harbor Employers Association.  The clerical workers have been working without a contract for nearly 30 months and allege that jobs have been shipped out of state and overseas.

The clerical workers say its not about the money they are making, it is about protecting jobs. The shippers say it is about modernization and that the union wants to protect jobs that are no longer necessary. The strike is affecting the movement of cargo estimated at the rate of about $1,000,000,000 per day.

“The real purpose behind this claim is to promote ‘featherbedding’ — requiring employers to call in temporary employees and hire new permanent employees even when there is no work to perform,” the employers said in their statement.

I believe that the shippers released this statement regarding the situation:

 The OCU [clerical workers' union] enjoy extremely generous paid time off benefits (with average absenteeism from vacation, sick leave, holidays, and other leaves totaling over 29%, or three and one-half months, of the year). In the face of this absenteeism, the OCU demand that when employees are absent, for whatever reason, the employers must call in a temporary employee to fill the vacancy on the first day and for the duration of the vacancy.
• The OCU also insist that the employers hire a new employee every time an employee retires or quits, even if there is no work for the new employee to perform.
• The OCU’s last written proposal before the strike includes an unlawful demand that employers convert some managers to union-represented clerks as a reward for giving the OCU misleading and/or false information that the OCU sought to use against the employers during contract negotiations.
…The OCU are already the highest paid clerical workers in America. The employers’ latest proposals would increase OCU annual compensation packages to over $190,000 in wages and benefits by 2016, including:
• Average annual wages up to approximately $90,000;
• Pensions of up to $75,000 per year;
• Maintenance of all benefits in the OCU’s extremely generous health plan, for which the OCU pay nothing (benefits include, e.g., $0 co-pay for generic drugs; $0 for x-rays, diagnostics, and lab tests; $5 office visit co-pays; 90% coverage for infertility; and more);
• Maintenance of all other employment benefits (an average of 12 weeks of paid time off every year; meal and transportation allowances; early retirement with full benefits; education reimbursement; etc.).

Little difficult to feel sorry for these office workers. They have had it really nice. If they are no longer needed, I say sayonara. Don't let the IBM selectric hit your fanny on the way out. Unionism at its worst. I hate make work.