May 2, 2008 in City

Port workers stay off job for May Day protests

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Associated Press photo

A cargo ship sits docked at the Port of Tacoma as normally bustling cargo handling lanes sit empty Thursday in Tacoma. The ports of Seattle and Tacoma were idle Thursday as longshore workers took the day off. Associated Press
(Full-size photo)

LOS ANGELES – West Coast cargo traffic came to a halt Thursday as port workers ditched the day shift, saying they wanted to commemorate May Day and call on the U.S. to end the war in Iraq.

Workers stayed off the job for about 10 hours before returning for evening shifts.

“Everything is back to normal. Assignments are being dispatched,” said Craig Merrilees, a spokesman for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.

Thousands of dockworkers at 29 ports in California, Oregon and Washington did not show up for the morning shift, leaving ships and truck drivers idle at ports from Long Beach to Seattle, Pacific Maritime Association spokesman Steve Getzug said.

The longshore workers were expected to return to work for the start of the evening shift, he said.

“There’s no work happening, so that means there’s no cargo being unloaded and certainly being loaded either,” Getzug said.

May Day is an international day of labor solidarity.

Longshore workers at several ports participated in rallies with other anti-war protesters, while a number of workers chose to make their statement simply by taking the day off.

In Seattle, several hundred demonstrators were joined by longshoremen for a protest march along the waterfront. Some protesters held signs saying “No Iraq War” and “Stop the war on immigrants and Iraq.”

The West Coast ports are the nation’s principal gateway for cargo container traffic from the Far East, with the adjacent ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach handling about 40 percent of the nation’s cargo.

During a typical day shift, about 10,000 cargo containers are loaded and unloaded from ships coastwide, Getzug said.

Longshore workers handle everything from operating cranes at port marine terminals to clerical work like coordinating truck cargo deliveries.

A total of about 25,000 of them work at West Coast ports. About 6,000 were working the day shift last Thursday, handling cargo from 30 ships coastwide, Getzug said.

J. Craig Shearman, a spokesman for the National Retail Federation, said shippers and exporters expected no significant, long-term disruptions from the walkout.

“This is something that happens every year,” Shearman said. “Shippers and exporters know about it and plan around it.”

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