Strike at LA and Long Beach ports ends
Source: Agencies |
December 6, 2012, Thursday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
NEGOTIATORS have reached an agreement to end an eight-day strike that crippled the largest US port complex and prevented shippers from delivering billions of dollars in cargo to warehouses and distribution centers across the country.
"I'm really pleased to tell all of you that my 10,000 longshore workers in the ports of LA and Long Beach are going to start moving cargo on these ships," said Ray Familathe, vice president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. "We're going to get cargo moved throughout the supply chain and the country and get everybody those that they're looking for in those stores."
The deal to end the strike was announced by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who emerged from the talks just a few hours after he had escorted in federal mediators who had just arrived from Washington.
"I think it's appropriate to say 'mission accomplished,'" Villaraigosa said.
Days of talks that included all-night bargaining sessions suddenly went from a stalemate to big leaps of progress by Tuesday. Villaraigosa said the sides were already prepared to take a vote when the mediators arrived.
The mediators said they had little to do with the solution.
"In the final analysis, it worked. The parties reached their own agreement," said George Cohen, director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. "There is no question in my mind that collective bargaining is the best example of industrial democracy in action."
The strike began on November 27 when about 400 members of the union's local clerical workers unit walked off their jobs.
"I'm really pleased to tell all of you that my 10,000 longshore workers in the ports of LA and Long Beach are going to start moving cargo on these ships," said Ray Familathe, vice president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. "We're going to get cargo moved throughout the supply chain and the country and get everybody those that they're looking for in those stores."
The deal to end the strike was announced by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who emerged from the talks just a few hours after he had escorted in federal mediators who had just arrived from Washington.
"I think it's appropriate to say 'mission accomplished,'" Villaraigosa said.
Days of talks that included all-night bargaining sessions suddenly went from a stalemate to big leaps of progress by Tuesday. Villaraigosa said the sides were already prepared to take a vote when the mediators arrived.
The mediators said they had little to do with the solution.
"In the final analysis, it worked. The parties reached their own agreement," said George Cohen, director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. "There is no question in my mind that collective bargaining is the best example of industrial democracy in action."
The strike began on November 27 when about 400 members of the union's local clerical workers unit walked off their jobs.
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