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.”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.”
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, a marine clerk’s union based in San Pedro, and Daniel Miranda, a representative from ILWU Local 94, a foreman’s union based in San Pedro.
The ILWU safety committee also will have representatives presenting their concerns. They include Local 13 representatives Luke
Hollingsworth and Ray Benavente, and Mike Podue, Local 63.Big ships packed with containers are flowing into the nation’s major West Coast ports at a frenetic pace as negotiators prepare to begin talks on a new union contract for 13,600 dockworkers, according to labor experts and an official with the National Retail Federation.
Some officials say the rush to get cargo into West Coast seaports is a hedge against a possible labor disruption when the six-year dockworker contract expires July 1 – though some say the jitters may be unfounded.
“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.”
