SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 30 (Reuters) - Contract talks between West Coast port employers and union workers look set to continue through the weekend as both sides seek to hammer out a deal to keep goods flowing through ports which handle some $300 billion in U.S. trade annually.
"People are at the table and talking," Steve Stallone, a spokesman for the International Longshore & Warehouse Union, said Friday. "They are scheduled to keep talking on Saturday and Sunday, but will take Labor Day (Monday) off."
Longshore workers with the the ILWU -- one of the most powerful and well-paid unions in the nation -- have been working on day-to-day contracts since July 1, when their last contract expired.
The union, which represents some 10,500 members, is at odds with port employers over the introduction of new technology which operators say will boost profitability and competitiveness but which ILWU officials fear will cost union jobs.
Officials at the Pacific Maritime Association, which represents the ports, did not immediately return calls seeking comment Friday on the talks, which cover a number of major U.S. ports including Los Angeles, Oakland, and Seattle.
In Canada Friday, grain companies began looking for alternate ways to get crops to customers as a simmering labor dispute at the Port of Vancouver dragged into its fifth day, pushing grain future prices higher.
Vancouver port workers, who had been working without a contract since the end of 2000, were locked out late Sunday after they failed to meet a deadline to accept a new contract offer.
In the U.S. talks, union members have accused the Bush administration of shielding the port employers by floating the suggestion that, if a strike were to occur, troops could be used to keep the ports open.
Last month union workers authorized their negotiating committee to call a strike vote for ports, although thus far neither side has suggested that a strike or lockout is imminent.