A three-week-long strike by the International Longshoremen's Association against Evergreen America has idled or diverted 11 ships and halted the carrier's operations at Port Elizabeth, N.J.; Norfolk, Baltimore and Savannah.

The strike, by port captains seeking union recognition, has affected Evergreen customers, many of whom already had cargo on the company's ships when the strike began. The company has declared force majeure, which frees a carrier from contractual obligations that it can't meet because of uncontrollable circumstances, for 11 ships.

Those vessels are the Ever Reward and Ever Dispute, both berthed at Elizabeth; the Ever Result, at Savannah; the Ever Divine, Ever Develop; Ever Royal, Hansa Africa and Caribbean Sea, all diverted to Colon, Panama; the Ever Refine and Ever Decent, diverted to Halifax, and the Ever Racer, whose New York and Norfolk cargo was discharged at Colon. The Caribbean Sea discharged cargo at Charleston last weekend before being sent to Panama.

Evergreen said its force majeure declaration is valid for those vessels, all of their cargo, and for cargo bound to ports beyond those that the ILA has struck. "This condition is entirely beyond Evergreen's control," the company said.

ILA longshoremen have refused to cross picket lines posted on behalf of the striking port captains, who earlier voted 3-2 for union representation. Evergreen is asking the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to overturn a National Labor Relations Board order directing the company to bargain with the union. Evergreen contends the port captains are managers who are not eligible to unionize.

In a separate case, Evergreen is asking the NLRB to declare the port captains' picketing an illegal secondary boycott. For several days, the company has been saying that an NLRB decision is possible within the next 24 to 48 hours. The NLRB has not indicated when it will rule.

The union has had no official response to Evergreen's request for the ILA leadership to intervene to halt the port captains' strike. The ILA also is trying to organize employees at Evergreen America's Morristown, N.J., headquarters. The employees voted 61-52 against unionization last year. The ILA, claiming company coercion tainted the referendum, is asking the NLRB to order a new election.

No other carrier is affected by the current Evergreen dispute, although the ILA has said it plans to try to organize port captains and office workers at the East Coast offices of other carriers. The New Jersey-based affiliates of Cosco, Hanjin and Yangming have challenged ILA efforts to organize their port captains on grounds the employees, whose duties include vessel stowage planning, are managers.

By Joseph Bonney