Los Angeles and Long Beach Ports to Reopen After 8-Day Strike

As the strike dragged into its second week, both sides had come under increasing pressure from local officials to end the dispute, which had threatened to derail the Southern California economy during the holiday season. Officials from the Port of Long Beach estimated that $650 million in trade has been idled each day of the strike. A federal mediator arrived on Tuesday to help broker a deal.

“I am pleased to announce that an agreement has been reached between labor and management that will bring to an end the eight-day strike that has cost our local economy billions of dollars,” Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa of Los Angeles said in a statement released Tuesday night. “With the strike now ending, we must waste no time in getting the nation’s busiest port complex’s operations back up to speed.”

Although only about 600 clerical workers had been participating in the strike, they managed to shut down 10 of the 14 shipping container terminals at the two ports because thousands of longshoremen from the union would not cross the picket lines.

“This victory was accomplished because of support from the entire family of 10,000 members in the harbor community,” Robert McEllrath, the president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, said in a statement announcing the agreement.

Neither the union nor the terminal operators offered details of the new contract agreement on Tuesday night.

Steve Getzug, a spokesman for the Harbor Employers Association, which represents the terminal operators, said the union voted on the proposal from the employers on Tuesday shortly before the federal mediator arrived. He added that the deal included “some compromise on staffing issues that were important to the employers.”

“And, importantly, a deal has been reached,” Mr. Getzug said. “The longshoremen expected to return 7 a.m., ready to get the cargo moving again.”

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/06/us/los-angeles-and-long-beach-ports-to-reopen-after-strike.html?partner=rss&emc=rss