It is one of the top items in the Code of the Left that only management can be called "greedy." Still:

From the Mercury News

...No new talks between the Pacific Maritime Association and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union have been scheduled since negotiations with a federal mediator collapsed late Sunday night in San Francisco.



After four consecutive days of talks, union leaders rejected a proposal management offered Sunday evening. Both sides blame the other for walking out of talks.

Details of the PMA's final proposal to the union emerged Monday. The five-year deal called for:

• Union coverage of only those jobs created by adopting new technology whose definition currently falls under union jurisdiction.

• No layoffs due to new technology.

• Pay of $114,500 a year for full-time dockworkers and $137,500 a year for clerks.

• 100 percent health-care benefits with no deductible.

• Annual pensions of up to $50,000 a year.

"I think that proposal would have made them the envy of every blue-collar worker in America,"[PMA president] Miniace said.

But union leaders called the package a slide backward.

They said the deal offered no wage increases over the first three years except for some crane drivers. It doesn't give pension increases to current retirees or widows.

Finally, union leaders said, it doesn't give the union jurisdiction over all new jobs created by technology, leaving room for the jobs to be farmed out to third parties. And that's the major sticking point in the dispute.

ILWU President James Spinosa called the proposal "very divisive'' and said the technology provision is "a disguise for having others do our work."

"They're looking for Taft-Hartley; they're looking for government intervention," Spinosa told reporters at a news conference Monday. "They'll continue this lockout, in our opinion, as long as there's this threat of government action behind it."

...The breakdown in talks surprised some local union members. Pamela Romez, a 42-year-old American Canyon resident who works the docks at the Port of Oakland, said she was saddened that management didn't propose a better contract.

"At some point a softer and more humble heart needs to prevail, and that needs to come from management," Romez said. "We're not talking about machines; we're talking about lives."

World's Smallest Violin playing...

Okay, if it isn't greed motivating this, then what would make a union pick now to throw a monkey wrench into the economy just before an election? This issue has been on the burner since last summer. And yes, despite attempt to picture this as a bunch of poor workers minding their own business and suddenly being locked out, the union started this mess with an organized work slowdown.