Quiet Arrest for Longshoreman at Center of Melee

A 49-year-old longshoreman has been arrested for non-payment of child support three weeks after his attempted arrest at a union hall led to a strike that briefly closed the Los Angeles and Long Beach harbors.

The Los Angeles district attorney’s office reported that Roy Neal was apprehended just after 5 a.m. Friday as he attempted to pick up a paycheck at the Wilmington payroll office of the Pacific Maritime Association, which represents shippers and other waterfront employers.

Neal, whose address is unknown, was arrested without incident and remains in custody at County Jail on $5,000 bail. He is charged with violating probation for allegedly failing to pay $3,904 in support payments for his two children, authorities said.

In arresting Neal, the district attorney’s office sent six investigators to the maritime association office, fearing a repeat of an Oct. 10 melee at the dispatch hall of the International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union, Local 13. The hall in Wilmington was the scene of an angry confrontation between 300 longshoremen and authorities when two district attorney’s investigators entered the building with an arrest warrant for Neal.

Hours after the Oct. 10 confrontation, about 500 longshoremen walked off their jobs at the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports, idling 30 ships and tens of millions of dollars in cargo. During subsequent talks with maritime association officials, the longshoremen’s leaders acknowledged that the 13-hour walkout was illegal under the union’s contract with employers. In addition, the union agreed the striking workers would lose one day’s pay, roughly $200 per longshoreman.