Office clerks at the nation’s largest port complex traded contract proposals with their employers Monday during marathon talks that one labor official hoped would lead to a settlement and avert a possible shutdown of the docks, the Los Angeles Daily News reports.
The union said it would submit its latest proposal in the evening after both sides in the labor dispute agreed to continue negotiating past a 12:01 a.m. Monday strike deadline set by the union.
“We will not leave this facility without an agreement – or we’re on strike,” said John Fageaux Jr., president of the office clerical unit of Local 63, a division of the ILWU. “I believe if we don’t have an agreement tonight, you’ll see picket signs first thing in the morning.”
The 15,000-member International Longshore and Warehouse Union has indicated that longshoremen would honor picket lines if the 750 clerks strike.
That would effectively shut down loading and unloading operations at the neighboring ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
