Also check:http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080502/ts ... laboriraqs
LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Around 25,000 workers at 29 ports along the western US coastline went on strike on Thursday to demand an end to the war in Iraq, union officials said.
The International Longshore and Warehouse Union said in a statement on its website that longshore workers across the region had downed tools in what it described as a one-day show of support for US troops.
"We're supporting the troops and telling politicians in Washington that it's time to end the war in Iraq," union president Bob McEllrath said.
Officials at the Port of Long Beach and Los Angeles, two of the biggest cargo terminals, said work had ground to a standstill.
"It amounts to a 'blue flu' or a 'May Day flu,' where longshore workers are calling in sick," spokesman Arley Baker said.
The walkout comes two months before the expiration of an existing six-year labor agreement between the dockworkers and the Pacific Maritime Association, which represents port operators and shippers.
Although the ILWU said the strike was a protest against the war in Iraq, the industrial action has been viewed by analysts as a show of strength amid ongoing contract negotiations.
Pacific Maritime Association spokesman Steve Getzug told AFP the strike was being viewed as a leveraging tactic.
"It does seem likely to us that this is connected to the ongoing contract negotiations," Getzug said.
However, longshore spokesman Craig Merrilees rejected suggestions that the walkout was related to contract talks.
"Absolutely not," he said, adding that the PMA had a "seriously distorted misappraisal of what happened today."
"The bargaining process has been moving in a positive direction precisely because both sides are committed to reaching an agreement by July 1st, and that commitment remains," Merrilees said.
Union leaders said the group had decided in January to call a day of strike action on May 1. PMA officials said the strike -- in effect from 8 am to 5 pm -- had a minimal economic effect on the operation of ports in the region.
"It's not likely to bring the US economy to its knees," Getzug said. "But it does come at a time when people are relying on US west coast ports operating smoothly. These kinds of stoppages aren't helpful."
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