The problem with making the big bucks is that both you and your employer know that there are plenty of folks out there who will do the work for less. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 63 Office Clerical Unit leaders returned to the bargaining table this weekend in an effort to protect their turf and make sure that the 14 terminal operators and ocean carrier agencies that employ their members don't send their work elsewhere.

The OCU's three-year labor contract expired at midnight Wednesday. There was a rushed exchange of proposals from the union and employers as midnight approached. The OCU emailed its proposal to employers at about 8:30 p.m. The employers shot back their counter proposal just before the deadline, but it was not accepted.

On Thursday morning, the union workers threw up picket lines at terminals in the Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach.

The lines temporarily closed down the terminals, but an arbitrator - whose job it is to settle waterfront disputes between the dockworkers and the Pacific Maritime Association - ruled that it wasn't a bonafide picket line because the OCU leaders had not bargained in good faith since they didn't give management enough time to consider the union's proposal before deciding to strike.

Although many of the companies that employ the clerical workers are the same ones that employ the dock workers, the two groups are covered under different contracts. The dockworkers' contract is administered by the PMA; the clerical workers contract is administered by the Los Angeles-Long Beach Harbor Employers Association.

The job actions capped a busy week in the relationship between the OCU and the companies that employ its members. The union members approved a strike authorization vote with the results announced on Tuesday.

In dueling press releases sent out as the deadline neared, the union accused the companies - all located in or around the Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach - of attacking the clerical workers' job security and using technology to outsource the work to foreign lands.

In their release, the companies accuse the union of setting a course for "disruption, not resolution" and refusing to negotiate a "fair and reasonable" contract at a time when the economy is in a fragile recovery from a historic 18-month decline.

One thing everybody agrees on is that the OCU members are among the highest paid clerical workers in the U.S. According to the companies, the average OCU clerical worker earned $96,900 in 2009. Company negotiators say they have offered the union a pay hike, a 10 percent increase in pension benefits, and a company-paid health plan.

Management accuses the union of seeking "featherbedding" provisions that would force the companies to hire temporary and replacement workers even when there is no work available and a roll-back of provisions in earlier contracts that allow the company to use "technology demanded by the employers' customers."

The union says it did allow a reduction in headcount during the dark days of the recession, but now business is back and management is seeking contract language that would erode job security.

Despite the power plays and tough talk from both sides, nobody wants any lengthy disruption at this time. The dockworkers are finally back on the job full time and making the kind of money they made pre-recession. The companies don't want a shutdown when they are just beginning to climb back out of the fiscal black hole. And the clerical workers want to make sure their jobs, and their big paychecks, don't go somewhere else.

In other words, there probably is not going to be major labor problem on the docks. But probably is not for sure.

-- George Cunningham

-- The Cunningham Report