US dockworkers turn down pay offer but talks will continue.

(From Lloyds List)

Byline: We won't accept less than west coast figure, says union chief

THE first session of talks on a new master labour contract between the International Longshoremen's Association and employers at US east and Gulf coast ports have ended in- conclusively in Florida as dockworkers' leaders flatly rejected an initial pay offer, writes John McLaughlin in New York.

ILA president John Bowers said he had asked employers' leaders to put an offer on the table when talks began. They came up with a wage increase of 50cents an hour for each year of the contract's three-year duration.

'It was not enough for me to accept,' he said, …