ILWU Negotiation Update:  Sept. 30, 2002

ILWU workers remain locked out of West Coast ports by the PMA.  We want to return to work as soon as possible.  PMA has said for weeks that any work stoppage would have a severe impact on the national economy, and now it is the PMA which has taken the action to stop work at the ports. 

Despite the lockout, ILWU workers are still working military cargo and passenger vessels.  We have reached agreements up and down the coast with cruise lines to work their ships.  In Tacoma, we are also working the TOTE vessels carrying cargo to Alaskans. ILWU Local 23 made a similar offer to CSX lines, formerly Sea-Land. CSX is the second major carrier of domestic and military cargo to Alaska. Maersk Pacific Stevedoring, a foreign owned company, employs the longshore workers who work the CSX ships. They refused the Local 23 proposal. ILWU Local 23 continues to make this offer to work the ships.

We were scheduled to meet with the PMA at 2 pm today.  That meeting began when the PMA arrived at 3 pm.  At that time, ILWU International President James Spinosa informed the PMA that we have exhausted the technology question due to the inability or unwillingness of the PMA to put together a unified proposal.  Therefore, we left technology and presented our pension proposal, to which PMA indicated that they need more time to study.

The Director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Services (FMCS) has scheduled a meeting with the ILWU and the PMA tomorrow at 10:30 a.m.  The purpose of this meeting is for the Director to explain how the FMCS can be of assistance.  The ILWU has made no decision thus far regarding the use of mediation.

AN INJURY TO ONE IS AN INJURY TO ALL.

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