Contract negotiations covering 10,500 dockworkers and 29 West Coast ports resumed yesterday between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association for the first time since talks deadlocked five weeks ago (see WIT for July 22, 2002). Little progress was made on the closely linked and controversial issues of technology implementation, the elimination of union represented jobs and the inclusion of new job categories in the collective bargaining unit (see WIT?s for May 13, July 18, 2002). A proposal on port security introduced by the ILWU seemed more an occasion for the two sides two take PR shots at each other, than to work towards agreement on significant points of disagreement.
See "Port Talks Resume as Sides Take Potshots", MARLA DICKERSON, Los Angeles Times, August 27, 2002