8,000 Women Compete in Drawing for 228 Dockworker Positions

The work is not steady and it can be strenuous, but the $14-an-hour wage she will make in her new part-time job as a dockworker is a godsend for Annette Hernandez, an unemployed single mother raising three children.

Hernandez shrieked with joy Monday as her name was called in a lottery to fill 228 part-time dockworker jobs reserved for women under the terms of a settlement of a discrimination lawsuit.

“This is going to be my first real job. It’s so exciting,” said Hernandez, 30, one of more than 300 women to show up for Monday’s drawing. Before she is eligible to work, she must undergo a physical examination and testing for drug and alcohol use and strength and endurance. But Hernandez said she is confident she will pass.

Tears of happiness flowed down her daughter’s cheeks. “I hope it will be a better future,” said 11-year-old Katrina Hernandez.

Monday’s drawing in a Wilmington union hall determined which of 8,000 applicants will fill so-called “casual” dockworker jobs--work that entails mainly unskilled labor such as unloading containers and moving equipment.

The recruitment drive was the second conducted in two years to comply with a landmark 1982 court settlement between a group of women, the Pacific Maritime Assn., which represents shippers on the West Coast, and the International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union.

The settlement requires that women fill 35% of part-time, or casual, dockworker jobs. Women currently hold about 25% of the 900 casual jobs. In the recruitment drive two years ago, 350 jobs were filled.

The 8,000 applications received this year, officials said, surpassed by several hundred the total of two years ago. “It was a sign of the times,” said Carie Clements, Southern California manager for the Pacific Maritime Assn. “More people need jobs.”

Four hundred names were drawn at random from the pool of 8,000. The 400 that were drawn will be whittled down by no-shows and those who fail the testing, Clements said. If officials still have more than enough, the candidates will be chosen in the order their names were called until the jobs are filled.

Once they are selected, casual workers are not guaranteed jobs. They must visit the union hall every day and wait to be called for work. The jobs pay $14 or $16 an hour, depending on the tasks, and several casual dockworkers said they use the jobs as supplemental income.

Some casual dockworkers said that lately, jobs have available about once a week. Some fear the recruitment drive to bring in more women will translate into fewer jobs for casual dockworkers--a move they say could bring hardship as the holiday season approaches.

“There is not enough work,” said longshoreman Rolando Harvey. “They don’t need to bring in 200 more people.”

“As it is, we’re working only once a week,” said dockworker Jackie Hay.

Clements insisted that increased shipping during the holidays will mean more jobs for all. Nevertheless, she said, officials were obligated to conduct the drive to comply with the court decree.

Just the prospect of getting work, no matter how slim, was enough to propel applicants to try for the jobs.

“We’re just making it with me not working but it sure would be nice to have one or two days’ work,” said Debra Beutler, 29, of San Pedro, who with her husband and two small children waited in vain to hear her name called.

Hernandez and two others were the only people at the union hall whose names were called. The others picked were not in the hall. All will be notified of their selection by mail, Clements said.

But many walked away disappointed.

“This was a joke,” said Colleen Cox, 34, of Wilmington, who was not picked. Out of work from her railroad job since a February labor dispute, she wonders about the future. “I have four children and no job,” she said bitterly.

Hernandez said she gets by on welfare, about $633 a month, and has done informal secretarial work. She said she looks forward to the work, even if it is something she never imagined doing.

“If they don’t mind having me, I don’t mind it,” she said.