West Coast dockworkers have been operating without a contract since July 1 as negotiations for a new deal drag on. That means their no-strike clause is no longer operative, and ordinary arbitration procedures for resolving disputes no longer apply.

Dockworkers have decided to start taking their lunch breaks simultaneously. Bloomberg reports:

Employers are allowed to stagger shifts around lunch times so there’s enough dockworkers available to deliver and receive containers, said the Pacific Maritime Association, which speaks for terminal operators and ocean carriers, in an emailed statement to Bloomberg on Monday. But “beginning last week, ILWU Local 13 has stopped complying with that contract provision,” the PMA said, referring to the local chapter of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. . . .

Yusen Terminals LLC CEO Alan McCorkle said the actions haven’t caused much of an impact to his Port of Los Angeles terminal, but that the trucking community has been affected with long queues and delays.

Cargo movement by truck at the twin ports is now “completely shut down” from 12pm to 1pm daily, instead of normally running at about half-capacity over the meal time, “which causes a longer truck queue and delays to the trucking community,” McCorkle said.

Truck drivers are mostly nonunion workers, so don’t expect the leadership of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union to shed a tear for them. The ILWU supports A.B. 5, a California state law that upends the businesses of many independent truckers. ILWU opposition to automation also makes truck drivers’ jobs harder by making turnaround times longer than they would be with technological assistance.

Here was the ILWU’s response in the Bloomberg story:

ILWU President Willie Adams said in a statement his members are allowed “to take a lunch break just like everyone else.” The union said dockworkers are working every day, according to their agreements with the PMA, and that trucks can form lines for many reasons. The union said the PMA is using the lines to try to influence public opinion.

“Just like everyone else” — does Adams think most businesses “completely shut down” for an hour in the middle of the day while every worker takes a lunch break at the same time? Let’s remember that Los Angeles/Long Beach was one of the only major ports in the world that didn’t operate for 24 hours a day before promising to do so in 2021 (which never actually happened). Nobody is saying that every worker should work 24 hours a day or that no one should take a lunch break — that’s why people invented these things called shifts.

As things currently stand, 22,000 highly paid and unionized dockworkers being petty about their lunch breaks has the potential to disrupt commerce for millions of Americans. This isn’t only a matter of consumers purchasing goods that arrive through West Coast ports. Millions of other jobs depend on those goods — from truck drivers to factory workers. It’s not “pro-worker” to support these stunts. Many more workers would be hurt by a strike than would be helped by the ILWU getting its way yet again.

Fortunately, businesses have been taking steps to reduce their reliance on West Coast ports for over a year now, even before the contract disputes began. Congested infrastructure, California regulation, and union hardball aren’t worth the trouble.