As you may, or may not be aware, the clerks at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are on Strike.

The Los Angeles Times, in a reporting job that harkens back to their pre-Otis Chandler days, when they were the worst major daily in the nation, takes a claim by the management negotiator, and reports it as fact:

Stephen Berry, lead negotiator for the shipping lines and cargo terminals, said the clerical workers have been offered a deal that includes “absolute job security,” a raise that would take average annual pay to $195,000 from $165,000, 11 weeks’ paid vacation and a generous pension increase.

Of course, the idea that “clerks” get $165,000 a year, much less %195,000 a year.

Well, the slightly less credulous Long Beach Post, reports a slightly different number:

Employers however, feel most of these claims are highly questionable. They say that workers have rejected fair proposals in the last few years including the most recent one offered on Monday, the day before the walkout, which included: absolute guarantees that OCU workers will not be laid off; full-time pay for 52 weeks a year despite workload; permission to access computer database update histories and audit trails so as to allow clerical workers to research if anyone is using technology to divert their work; and most prominently, increase their compensation packages to over $190,000 in wages and benefits by 2016. Clerical workers currently make an average of $165,000 per year.

Well, if you assume about 10 hours of OT a week, normal in this environment, and that 30% of all remuneration is of the non wage form (healthcare, vacation, sick time, pensions), you get a base hourly rate of about $46/hour, which is nice, but not spectacular.

Also note that the union is demanding access to the job routing database, which indicates that there is a real suspicion that management is transferring jobs elsewhere.

Also, look how another source, from the same Stephen Berry, drops the pay number even further:

Stephen Berry, a negotiator for the employers, said under the old contracts, workers earn either $40 or $41 per hour, receive a full pension after as little as 10 years of work, and receive 11 weeks of paid time off annually.

Berry said the employers have offered slight raises. But both sides agree the dispute is not about money.

Union officials say the companies have been quietly moving some jobs to Taipei, Taiwan; Costa Rica; Charlotte, N.C.; and Texas, a charge employer representatives vehemently deny.

So,we are down to $40/hour.

But we are still relying on Stephen Berry, who is paid to lie for employers.

What if we found an independent source, something like an official government job posting, which lists the salary for a “Cargo Audit Clerk III- Provisional” as $16.69 – $22.80 Hourly.

Kevin Drum took the LA Times article as gospel, but his readers provided links (which I am using here) which show that both the Times, as well as Mr. Berry, to be full of crap.