LOS ANGELES -- With delays continuing at the nation's largest container complex, waterfront employers in Los Angeles-Long Beach are adding to the longshore labor pool at a rapid pace and are pushing to hire 600 to 700 new workers this week.

"We're already about half-way there," said James McKenna, president of the Pacific Maritime Association, which represents shipping lines and terminal operators.

Also, the PMA and International Longshore and Warehouse Union are working out the details of a plan to open up the longshore rolls and add about 1,500 workers over the next 30 to 45 days. The plan would ultimately add at least 10,000 part-time longshoremen, known as casuals, to the labor pool.

The Southern California port complex (schedules) has been struggling with a shortage of longshoremen since mid-June. The shortage is caused by a confluence of factors including strong cargo volumes, intermodal rail delays, which contribute to congestion in the harbor, and a depletion of the casual ranks.

The labor shortage reached a crisis stage as full-time longshoremen took a long weekend over the July 4 holiday. Each day for the past week, terminal operators report that they have been unable to fill dozens of work crews, known as gangs. According to the Marine Exchange of Los Angeles, Long Beach
Harbor, employers were shorted 60 gangs on the day shift Monday, leaving 15 vessels idle.

Employers and the union are hiring hundreds of workers this week. Some are AFL-CIO members in other trades where the unions gave permission for laid-off or striking workers to gain immediate employment on the waterfront. Others are registered casuals who were reporting infrequently to the hiring hall but have been urged to show up daily.

On a normal day, employers call out all of the registered longshoremen that show up at the hiring halls, and then employers must fill any remaining positions with casuals. The part-time workers must be trained and must pass various tests before they are listed on the rolls as registered casuals. In
recent weeks, employers have called out all of the registered casuals, but hundreds of positions each day remained unfilled.

Cargo volumes are up about 10 percent -- about twice-earlier estimates -- during the first half of the year. At the same time, rail delays have caused cargo to sit longer than usual on the docks, forcing terminal operators to stack the containers as much as four-high. Stacked operations require a large number of dockworkers each day.

The congestion is being compounded by shipping lines that have added large, new vessels to their trans-Pacific fleets. The mega-ships can discharge as many as 4,000 40-foot containers in one call.

The hiring of more than 600 longshoremen this week will provide some immediate relief to employers who report delays of one to three shifts each day. However, the casual rolls in LA-Long Beach have not been expanded since 1998, so employer and labor must replenish the rolls with as many as 10,000 new casuals.

McKenna said the PMA and ILWU are working out a plan to expand the rolls in a measured way. They want to prevent the bedlam that occurred six years ago when they advertised for workers and were besieged by more than 20,000 applicants who saw work opportunities that would eventually pay $100,000 a year when they were promoted to full-time status.

New longshoremen start out as casuals, with lower pay and no benefits. After accruing a certain number of hours and when positions open up, they are registered as full-time longshoremen with full pay and benefits.

By Bill Mongelluzzo