LONG BEACH - International Longshore and Warehouse Union office workers were on the job Monday in Los Angeles-Long Beach even though their contract expired at midnight Saturday. Negotiations with shipping lines and terminal operators are scheduled to resume at mid-morning.

John Fageaux, president of ILWU Local 63 Office Clerical Unit, said the two sides must still reach agreement on wages, health, welfare, pension and technology issues.

More than 900 members of the union voted Friday to authorize a strike if negotiations break down.  The ILWU dockworker locals have stated they will honor the pickets should the office workers call a strike.

The office clerical unit is a division of ILWU Local 63, the marine clerks local in Southern California, but the two divisions have different job descriptions, and they operate under separate contracts.  Members of the office clerical unit handle documentation and other clerical duties for shipping lines and terminal operators.  Many of the office workers are employed at the terminals, although some also work in off-site offices.

Fageaux said negotiations continued until 11 p.m. Saturday, but the two sides remain apart on a number of issues.  Technology is crucial because, like the technology issues that were involved in the 2002 waterfront contract involving general longshoremen and marine clerks, technology could reduce work opportunities for office clerical workers.

The negotiations for the office clerical unit contract that was signed in 2004 were not completed until July 9, or eight days after the previous contract expired.  There was no strike in 2004. However, there have been times in the past when the office workers did strike, Fageaux said.

A strike could shut down the nation's largest port complex if ILWU general longshoremen, marine clerks and foremen were permitted to honor the picket lines.  Those longshore divisions negotiate on labor issues with the Pacific Maritime Association. The PMA, however, is not involved in the negotiations with the office clerical unit and could attempt to block a sympathy walkout as an illegal secondary boycott.

PMA President Jim McKenna said the general longshore divisions would have to pass a litmus test of several conditions for their walkout in support of the office workers to be judged as legal under the general longshore waterfront contract that is in effect until July 2008.

For example, the office workers must demonstrate that their primary place of work is at the marine terminals, that they had bargained in good faith and that the issues involved in the strike are valid, McKenna said.

Fageaux said the office clerical unit intends to return to the bargaining table Monday. "We're still there.  We'll continue to talk," he said.