(The Boston Globe published the following Associated Press article on its website on January 23.)
SAN FRANCISCO — West Coast dockworkers overwhelmingly approved a new six-year contract yesterday, formally ending a dispute that had closed the nation’s Pacific ports for 10 days last fall before President Bush intervened.
Nearly 90 percent of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union members who voted approved the multibillion-dollar deal, which should bring labor peace to 29 major West Coast ports and modernization to the docks.
Union members agreed to accept computer cargo-tracking technology designed to speed the flow of goods. The contract guarantees that all current union members will keep their jobs, but as they retire, about 400 positions could be lost.
Slightly more than 7,400 members voted for the deal, nearly 900 against it – the largest margin of victory for any longshoremen’s contract, according to union officials. Voter turnout was 85 percent.
Member companies of the Pacific Maritime Association, which represents shipping lines and terminal operators, ratified the deal earlier.
The deal features benefits including no-cost health insurance and a 60 percent increase in pensions. By 2008, a union member will receive an annual pension of $1,800 multiplied by the number of years worked. A 30-year veteran, for example, would get $54,000 per year in retirement benefits.
Salaries would increase 12 percent, giving the average longshoreman around $90,000 in annual pay.
The West Coast ports handle more than $300 billion in trade each year.
During the dispute, the port firms locked out the longshoremen. Auto assembly lines shut down, farm cargo rotted, and truck drivers waited for work.
Only after Bush invoked the Taft-Hartley Act to reopen the ports on Oct. 9 did contract talks progress. On Nov. 23, negotiators reached a tentative pact.