The International Longshore and Warehouse Union will be joined by the AFL-CIO and California labor unions at a rally calling for a quick settlement to its West Coast port contract talks.

The rally is scheduled for noon Wednesday in front of the Pacific Maritime Association headquarters in San Francisco. The PMA, which represents shipping lines and terminal operators, has been engaged in contract negotiations with the ILWU since May 13.

The PMA on Sunday presented the ILWU with a comprehensive contract proposal that calls for a 17 percent increase in the union's compensation package over a five-year contract. The proposal would also give employers the flexibility they need to implement information technology at marine terminals and assign workers as needed without restrictive manning requirements.

The ILWU negotiating committee on Monday stated that it would advise the union caucus, which is being held this week in San Francisco, to turn down the PMA's contract proposal and call for a return to negotiations.

The California Labor Federation, which is also meeting this week in San Francisco, says the ILWU contract negotiations are important to the national labor movement.

"The ILWU has always set the standards on wages, benefits and pensions for all American workers and has always effectively helped other workers achieve theirs," said Art Pulaski, executive secretary-treasurer of the California Labor Federation.

West Coast longshoremen are among the best-compensated blue-collar workers in the U.S. Full-time general longshoremen last year earned an average of $106,883. ILWU marine clerks averaged $128,421 and full-time ILWU foremen averaged $166,508. The ILWU said in a statement that the PMA's latest proposal includes cuts in the benefits package and "negligible wage and pension increases."

The ILWU last week made its own contract proposal that grants employers a free flow of information to marine terminals without the costly requirement that marine clerks re-key the information. The ILWU proposal recognizes that jobs will be lost to automation.

In a press conference Monday, PMA President Joseph Miniace said the employers' proposal satisfies the union's demand for full maintenance of health and welfare benefits. In fact, the PMA proposal would enhance the benefits package, increasing employer costs for ILWU benefits to $64,000 per longshoreman per year by the end of the contract.

Miniace said that over the next few years, the introduction of information technology and the ending of the redundant policy of re-keying documentation will result in a loss of about 400 to 450 of the approximately 1,500 marine clerk jobs. However, as cargo volumes grow, the trend will reverse itself and additional marine clerks will be hired beginning around 2007.

Finally, Miniace said the ILWU wants employers to guarantee the return to union jurisdiction those vessel planning jobs that were outsourced to non-union labor at inland locations. Miniace said the jobs that were moved to cities such as Boise, Idaho, Denver and Phoenix never belonged to the ILWU, so it would probably be illegal for the PMA to move those positions back to coast so they could fall under ILWU jurisdiction.

Bill Mongelluzo