THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 9, 1996 TAG: 9608090484
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CHRISTOPHER DINSMORE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 55 lines
Four months after a new labor deal was negotiated for Lambert's Point Docks, it has yet to be implemented.
The deal has been blocked by the president of the International Longshoremen's Association, port and labor officials say.
Designed to make the ailing Norfolk cargo terminal competitive again, the deal reduced wages on the docks and in warehouses for workers handling break-bulk cargo.
Longshoremen unloading cargo at the terminal would earn a fixed hourly wage of $15 instead of the $15 to $21 an hour they earn now based on seniority. Warehouse wages would be cut to $8 to $10 an hour from $12.
John Bowers, the ILA president, tabled the labor agreement after ILA locals in Baltimore and other Northeast ports said it would take cargo away from their ports.
Bowers may reconsider and approve the wage concessions agreement ``very soon,'' said Edward L. Brown Jr., ILA vice president in Norfolk.
``I think at the time he was misinformed that that particular facility was going to be used to undercut other ports,'' Brown said. ``We've cleared up some of those rumors.''
The delay has disappointed H.R. ``Bob'' Jones, president of Lambert's Point Docks Inc., and the terminal's owner, Norfolk Southern Corp.
``We've been working for abouttwo years to get wages that would be competitive,'' Jones said.
ILA locals in Hampton Roads voted in April to approve the deal.
``The union here voted us a contract and were on our side,'' Jones said.
Lambert's Point handles mostly break-bulk cargos such as rubber, steel and plywood. It has lost a significant amount of business in recent years, and it may handle less cargo in 1996 than ever before.
That means fewer hours for the ILA members who are hired by shipping lines, stevedores and the terminal to handle the cargo.
The fate of the Lambert's Point deal may not be decided until after the conclusion of coastwide contract talks on container handling between the ILA and ports, shipping lines and stevedoring companies, said Roger Giesinger, president and chief negotiator for the Hampton Roads Shipping Association, which represents the employers of ILA labor in Hampton Roads.
The ``master'' contract for containers expires Sept. 30, and negotiations on replacing it have been ongoing since last year.
The ILA is trying to figure out how to handle break-bulk issues between competing ports, Giesinger said.
``They just don't want to end up killing each other,'' he said. ILLUSTRATION: In April, union locals approved a contract that
reduced the salaries of workers handling break-bulk cargo in order
to help make the yard more competitive.
The deal has been blocked by the president of the International
Longshoremen's Association because union locals at Northeast ports
said it would hurt their business. by CNB