[041212.EN.SEA] LA-Long Beach Dock Strike Starts To Impact Life Beyond The Twin Ports

NON-STRIKING Los Angeles and Long Beach waterfront workers who are being denied work because there was no work to do once cargo flows stop and trucks are idle and empty freight train clog rail yards.

Vinny Wilkes loads and unloads trucks, but when he showed up at his job, but they told him there wasn't any work to do, reports Marketplace Business of Los Angeles. "I'm very worried. I have three children that may not have a Christmas behind what they are doing here," Mr Wilkes said.

The container Mr Wilkes would have loaded aren't here because 10,000 workers went on strike in solidarity with 600 clerks who work for the shipping lines and cargo terminals.

Long Beach port executive director Chris Lytle said the strike has already impacted beyond the port. "Trains are starting to stack up. You have thousands of truck drivers now that aren't working that would normally work the port."

Shipping lines are rerouting containerships to Mexico, Panama or further up the west coast.

International Longshore and Warehouse Union Craig Merrilles said the problem is not wages as the longshore clerks are well-paid - US$85,000 a year, but he says "dozens of clerical jobs have been outsourced overseas and to non-union workers".

The conflict effectively shut down most twin ports operations, causing an estimated $1 billion per day in losses and turning them into ghost towns. Roads that would be packed with big trucks were empty.

Longshoremen who declined to give their names expressed disappointment that their jobs were being affected by the smaller clerical union, whose 600 members work indoors.

But beyond the mere principle of union solidarity, the longshoremen said they were united by a fear that their jobs would be outsourced, said Reuters.

While it can be readily understood how clerical work can be outsourced through internet technology, visions of automatic cranes run from computer monitors - which exist today - arouse fears among dockers who imagine lower paid workers unloading ships in Los Angeles from afar displacing highly-paid dockers like themselves who do the work today.

Longshoreman Ruben Munoz, 56, a crane operator, said he has heard about such cranes and fears his job could become obsolete or outsourced.

"With the new technology, there are going to be more people and less jobs," Mr Munoz said. "That's a scary thought. We all have families to feed."

There are few good jobs for physical labourers, as manufacturing jobs go overseas. "Not everybody is smart enough to go to college," he said. "But when you outsource, send everything overseas, how do people survive?"

Source : HKSG, 04.12.12.