The union representing West Coast dockworkers and the group representing shipping companies say they are unlikely to reach a new labor agreement today, but they intend to keep talking.

The International Longshore Workers Union and the Pacific Maritime Association said they have no intention of striking or locking out workers as long as constructive talks continue. Today was the expiration date for their prior agreement.

The two sides have been talking since March 17. They announced an agreement on health care issues in mid-June but safety, work rules, pension and compensation issues still remain to be settled.

A devastating shutdown of West Coast docks occurred in 2002 when the two sides failed to reach agreement. President Bush then intervened to get the docks working again. The two sides say they don't want to see a recurrence of that shutdown.

The ILWU represents more than 25,000 workers at West Coast ports including Tacoma and Seattle.

CB Richard Ellis is out with the second-quarter numbers for Puget Sound retail, office and industrial space.

In the Tacoma area, the vacancy rate for office space is 9.32 percent, just under the Puget Sound rate of 10.95 percent. The direct asking rate for class A office space is at an average of $21.64 per square foot, well below the area average of $30.48. Downtown Seattle tops the list at $36.74.

For industrial property, Tacoma and Pierce county top the list of vacant space at 10.19 percent against an area average of 5.85 percent. The average asking rate is 36 cents per square foot, at the bottom of the list, against an average area rate of 54 cents.

The Tacoma area has 1,323,725 square feet of industrial property under construction – or nearly half of the land in the area under construction, at 2,937,819 square feet.

For retail space, Pierce County showed a total vacancy rate of 5.77 percent for the quarter, the highest in the area, against a Puget Sound overall average of 3.86 percent. The county again leads the area with 761,204 square feet under construction. The asking rate in Pierce County is the lowest in the area at an average of $17.23 per square foot, against an area average of $24.75, CBRE said.

If higher fares and a sour economy are taking a toll on air travel, the effects have yet to show up at Sea-Tac Airport where 2008 traffic through May is up 887,487 passengers.

New figures from the airport's owner, the Port of Seattle, show traffic in May was up 5.5 percent over the same month last year with year-to-date traffic through May 31 up 7.63 percent to 12,511,927.

Some airports nationwide are beginning to see dwindling traffic as airlines cut flights and raise fares to cope with rising fuel costs.

Though passenger numbers are up, cargo traffic is down 5.71 percent at Sea-Tac, airport figures show.

An employee error at a Boeing supplier's plant in South Carolina has damaged the upper section of the composite fuselage for the fourth test 787 Dreamliner, Boeing has acknowledged.

The error happened at Global Aeronautica in Charleston, S.C. where major portions of the 787's midbody are assembled.

The damage has been repaired, said a Boeing spokeswoman.

The fuselage section is expected to be transported to Everett for final assembly soon.

The damaged section will undergo further evaluation and testing in Everett before it is incorporated into the test aircraft.

Delays in the first flight of Boeing's 787 Dreamliner and airline financial problems have taken a gouge out of Boeing's stock price in the last year and also, as it turns out, in its employees' wallets.

Payouts to more than 70,000 Boeing Puget Sound employees under a stock trust bonus plan are determined by the average selling price of Boeing stock on June 30.

That price Monday was $66.15, down more than $41.00 from Boeing's 52-week high of $107.83.

That translates to a payout of $1,760 to every Boeing employee in company stock.

Had the benchmark day been just a month earlier, the payout would have been some $3,700 each based on an average share price of $82.77.

Press 1 to continue, or wait for an operator who will assist you. Please stay on the line. Really. We value your business.

But you don’t seem to value the way they do theirs, if you’re dealing with banks – but you do feel better than you did last year when dealing with the call-center industry overall.

The latest rankings by customers of customer-service representatives is out this week, with the Contact Center Satisfaction Index as prepared by Claes Fornell International Group.

In its second annual study of the industry, the group found that satisfaction with call centers is up three points to 72 (out of 100) on the CCSI scale.

• The lesson for companies that employ call centers comes best in the result showinging that 71 percent of unhappy and unsatisfied customers will share their experience, while only 48 percent of the happy and satisfied will send forth good word-of-mouth.

• Among the unhappy, 65 percent are at risk of defection to another brand or company, while 95 percent of satisfied customers will likely remain loyal.

Among the results for the banking industry:
• Overall satisfaction in 2008 is down 8 percent to 71 on the scale, from 77 in 2007.
• Customers have found call-center employees more courteous this year, at 82 vs. 81.
• Banking call-center employees speak in an understandable manner as much as they did last year, with a score of 79 unchanged.
• Employees are perceived as less knowledgeable, at 77, down from 78.
• They seem to have considerably less interest in helping, down to 77 from 81.
• Finally, customer service representatives are seen as much less effective in handling issues, down to 73 from 78.