Unemployment Plan for Longshoremen Goes Broke as Cargo Volume Plummets
NORFOLKÛÓCargo volume on the piers of Hampton Roads has fallen so drastically over the past three years that port employers are no longer able to fund an unemployment program for longshoremen.</br></br>Guaranteed Annual Income, the only unemployment program available to more than 950 Hampton Roads longshoremen, is broke, according to a suit filed in U.S. District Court.</br></br>The International LongshoremenÛªs Association has asked the court to grant it a judgment of $8.5 million against Hampton Roads Shipping Association, an organization of port employers.</br></br>The lLA contend^ the shippers are con-, tracturally obligated to fund the program and that the judgment would allow unemployment compensation to be paid through the end of September 1983.</br></br>ÛÏThere are a lot of longshoremen out there who are getting hungry,Û said an official of the GAI fund who asked not to be identified. He said that since Oct 1 an estimated 250 to 300 longshoremen have been out of work and without the GAI, which in the past assured them a paycheck during slack periods.