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California port workers wary of U.S. plan for background checks

By JEREMIAH MARQUEZ, | Tuesday, Apr 25 2006 1:15 PM

Last Updated: Tuesday, Apr 25 2006 1:15 PM

The organization for truckers serving California harbors supports a Bush administration plan to check the backgrounds of port workers as long as it doesn't interfere with their livelihood, an official said Tuesday. However, a longshore union official called the plan "harassment."

The government envisions looking into the backgrounds of hundreds of thousands of workers in the most sensitive areas of the nation's ports, and also issuing tamper-proof identification cards.

Stephanie Williams, vice president of the California Trucking Association, said she supported background checks if they are quick and don't interfere with the work of the nearly 12,000 truckers at the state's harbors.

"If it take four months to get back the information and the driver can't drive in the meantime, then we have a problem," Williams said.

Steve Stallone, spokesman for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, said the move "looks a lot like harassment of the workers." The government should intensify its scrutiny of shipping containers, he said.

"It seems to us that the biggest security threat is coming from the outside, and not from the workers who live and work in those communities," said Stallone, whose union represents about 14,000 West Coast longshoremen and clerks.

California is home to the nation's largest harbor complex, the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, which handle more than 43 percent of America's goods.

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Associated Press Writer Scott Lindlaw in San Francisco contributed to this report.