(Reuters) - Striking harbor clerks and management at the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach agreed to federal mediation on Tuesday in a bid to end a week-old labor clash that has idled most of America's biggest cargo shipping complex.
The agreement to mediation, announced by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, came after an all-night bargaining session that a spokesman for the Harbor Employers Association, representing shippers and terminal operators, said had left the parties "still far apart."
But a union spokesman said the opposing sides had "made incredible progress," and he credited the mayor boat with helping contract negotiators narrow their differences.
The spokesman, Craig Merrilees of the International Longshore and Warehouse Workers Local 63, said a new round of talks would begin once the mediator arrives later in the day.
With mounting economic losses estimated at several billion dollars, the strike marks the largest cargo traffic disruption at the Southern California harbor facilities since a 10-day lockout of longshoremen at several West Coast ports in 2002.
