For Immediate Release:   August 13, 2002  7:00 pm

Contact:  Steve Stallone  415-775-0533

ILWU Suspends Bargaining So Union Leader

Can Attend to Gravely Ill Father

(San Francisco)        Following an afternoon of negotiating sessions the 13-member bargaining team of the International Longshore Workers Union (ILWU) took a break from the table so that union leader James Spinosa can go to the side of his gravely ill father in Los Angeles.

            Spinosa received an emergency call while he was working on the contract covering more than 15,000 dock workers in 29 port cities.

            The contract with the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) was extended for another day as it has been every day since the July 1 expiration of the current agreement.  No new date has yet been set for bargaining to resume.

            Spinosa, who is International President of the ILWU, serves as chair of the negotiating team for the union.  The other members of the team will meet in a caucus at the union’s headquarters in San Francisco on Wednesday to continue preparing for subsequent bargaining sessions.

            Family members are rushing to the bedside of Robert Spinosa, 94, in Los Angeles.

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