Striking Baltimore dockers join employers in talks with arbitrator

PARTIES to the longshore strike that has closed the Port of Baltimore for two days have entered talks with an arbitrator.

Members of International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) deep sea Local 333 walked off the job on October 16 after voting down a proposed local contract with the Steamship Trade Association of Baltimore. The port's other ILA locals refused to cross the picket lines.

"Over a year ago, the ILA placed Baltimore's deep sea Local 333 in trusteeship amid allegations of missing money from a scholarship fund from over 20 years ago. Since then, the International officers have refused to handle any grievances on the piers," said the Longshore Workers Coalition lobby's website.

Maryland Port Administration spokesman Richard Scher said the ILA, whose members from other local members joined the strike in support, represents 2,000 workers of the port's 14,000 employees.

The 3091-TEU CCNI Antofagasta has left port for its next call at Charleston without discharging cargo, said Mr Scher, adding that this left four ships lingering at the docks while others lay at anchor.

The local contract in Baltimore is a supplementary agreement to the six-year coastwise master contract that the ILA negotiated last spring with United States Maritime Alliance, the employers' coastwise umbrella organisation.