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In an article titled ”Port cargo traffic rises ahead of labor talks,” the OC Register repeats — and challenges — the ”sky is falling” messages that are routinely trotted out by the employers’ side when contract negotiations begin:
”Retailers are always full of drama and sending hysterical, and usually wrong, messages that the sky is falling for big retailers like Target and Wal-Mart,” said Craig Merrilees, an ILWU spokesman. ”This is a ritual they go through every time a contract comes up. They make all kinds of pronouncements that have little to do with reality.”The 16-member negotiating committee for the International Longshore & Warehouse Union has several representatives from Southern California who will be in San Francisco on Monday to negotiate a new labor contract with the Pacific Maritime Association.
They include Ray Familathe, an ILWU international vice president, Ray Ortiz Jr. and Frank Ponce De Leon. The three union representatives are members of ILWU Local 13, which is based in San Pedro and represents dockworkers in the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles.
Also on the negotiating committee are Joe Gasperov, a representative of ILWU Local 63,...