ILA negotiations get under way: bargaining begins a year before contract expiration.(Ports)

It takes a big room to hold the wage-scale delegates of the International Longshoremen's Association, mad more than 300 of them were at a Miami Beach hotel for this month's kickoff negotiating session with waterfront management in Atlantic and Gulf ports.

They heard an initial contract offer from the United States Maritime Alliance, the umbrella group for port and regional management associations and employers. Among other things, the USMX offered annual wage increases of 50 cents an hour in each of the next three years. The ILA's basic wage for container and roll-on, roll-off cargo now is $27 an hour.

ILA President John Bowers said he "was not disappointed" with the …