L.A. Port Strike Spreads to Port of Long Beach
A strike by clerical workers at the largest pier at the Port of Los Angeles has spread to three terminals at the neighboring Port of Long Beach, the Associated Press reported.
Port of Long Beach officials said Wednesday afternoon that a labor action there had shuttered operations at three of six container terminals, the Associated Press reported.
About 70 clerical workers from the International Longshore and Warehouse Union walked off their jobs late Tuesday, based on the union’s claim that the terminal’s management was trying to outsource jobs overseas.
APM Terminals — the operator of the pier that is owned by shipping company A.P. Moller-Maersk Group — said in a statement posted on its website late Tuesday that it considered the action “an illegal work stoppage.”
The workers’ previous contract with APM expired June 2010. Port police said there had been no violence and no arrests, the Associated Press reported.
“The big companies are refusing to admit the problem that outsourcing causes for the Harbor Community that depends on these good jobs,” Ray Familathe, ILWU’s vice president-mainland, said in a union statement. “People have run out of patience.”
