Off the Waterfront

News media have abandoned the labor beat and missed a story of global financial import: the looming possibility of a longshoremen's strike at West Coast ports

A A A Comments By Matt Smith Wednesday, Jun 5 2002

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"To use a Harry Bridges-ism, they're [the longshoremen] after pork chops," says former Chronicle labor editor Dick Meister, who believes the Bay Area public will probably never read much in the way of daily newspaper stories about the apex and decline of the ILWU, the last of the nation's great labor unions. So far, the Chronicle has carried just a short story announcing that the shippers and longshoremen had entered negotiations. The possible global repercussions of a dockworker strike, and the domestic fallout if West Coast longshoremen reach too far and drive significant amounts of business to other ports, have gone undiscussed.

"You won't get much [coverage] until they're actually walking the picket line," Meister says.

Fred Harper

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But by the time regional newspaper editors are forced to pull somebody off the business desk and send him to ILWU headquarters, it might be too late. San Francisco's biggest-ever business story will be well under way, and there won't be a reporter to spare.

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