More than 80 longshoremen from up and down the West Coast will caucus in San Francisco five days from today to vote on a new three-year contract, but the negotiating team from the International Longshore and Warehouse Union still has no pact to present to its members.

The ILWU and Pacific Maritime Association did not meet on Monday; the negotiating teams met separately on Tuesday.

Major issues such as the union's demand for full maintenance of benefits and the employers' program for technology and work rule changes remain unresolved ahead of the July 22 caucus.

Even if the two sides cannot reach a tentative agreement by Monday, the longshoremen will still attend the week-long meeting in San Francisco.

"Those hotel rooms and meeting rooms have been booked. They're going to meet," said ILWU spokesman Steve Stallone.

The current three-year contract was set to expire on July 1, but the ILWU and PMA have extended it on a day-to-day basis while talks continue. Cargo is moving smoothly through West Coast ports.

The absence of work stoppages and slowdowns has pleased importers and exporters, but the apparent lack of progress in the negotiations is disconcerting to shippers represented by the West Coast Waterfront Coalition.

"It is a concern that they may have nothing to present to the caucus. It's maddening for everybody," said Robin Lanier, executive director of the coalition.

If negotiators succeed in reaching an agreement in the next few days, the ratification process will proceed. The caucus will discuss the proposed contract, and by the end of the week will vote to accept it, reject it, or send it back to the negotiating team with changes.

Since the longshoremen who attend the caucus are representative of the entire ILWU membership, a vote to accept the contract should be tantamount to passage when it is turned over to the rank and file for ratification. But even that scenario is not assured under the complicated voting procedures of the ILWU.

In the 1996 negotiations, the caucus approved the tentative contract, and a majority of the union's membership voted to accept it. However, ILWU Local 13 in Southern California rejected the proposed contract. Under ILWU rules, that was tantamount to a veto. The union needed a 60 percent majority - and two votes - from its membership to override the veto.

By Bill Mongelluzzo