SLOWDOWNS CONTINUE AT MAJOR WEST COAST PORTS
A backlog of ships waiting to dock and a shortage of labor to unload containers when vessels do reach a berth “is the status quo at all major West Coast ports,” Steve Sugerman, a spokesman for the Pacific Maritime Association, told Shippers News Wire Tuesday.
“Things are not going particularly well anywhere,” Sugerman said, affirming that little progress is being made in reducing a backlog from a 12-day shutdown of the ports.
“If anything, the backlog is increasing,” he said.
A spokesman for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union said that the PMA made unrealistic labor demands.
Another source in the PMA said “if the ILWU provided all the people we needed before, why can’t they do that now? Where have they all gone? Sitting home on union orders, that where.”
The PMA’s hands are legally tied for the duration of the cooling-off period mandated by the government’s Taft-Hartley injunction. Technically, both the PMA and the ILWU are defendants in a legal action in which the plaintiff is the United States. Thus, neither defendant can presently sue the other.
“We are documenting what we believe are blatant labor slowdowns in the major ports,” Sugerman said. “The PMA will very soon give that evidence to the Justice Department.”
At Long Beach and Los Angeles Tuesday, 117 vessels were waiting to come dockside in both ports. “The number of ships out there hasn’t changed,” said Art Wong, a spokesman for the port of Long Beach. “We get 15 in a day, and then 15 go out.”
Teresa Adams Lopez, a spokesperson for the port Los Angeles, said, “LA has 31 ships waiting and 25 coming to port, with four more due today. I think the overall numbers are about the same for Long Beach. There is definitely a backlog.” Truck congestion has eased on streets around the port.
Both Lopez and Wong refused to comment on alleged slowdowns by the ILWU.
Sources in the ports of Oakland and Seattle said they would let the PMA speak for them. They confirmed that numerous vessels were waiting in both localities.
“The ILWU seems to have targeted certain terminals,” a PMA source said, “such as SSA — the Stevedoring Association of America.”
Both the PMA and the ILWU confirmed that talks between them would resume Thursday under a federal mediator.
Meantime, some ocean carriers are planning to implement a $500-per-TEU surcharge, should talks fail.
Both PMA and ILWU sources confirmed that “extreme and growing” bitterness exists on both sides.
“The question down the road is what happens when the cooling-off period is over,” Wong said, “if nothing has been settled and the two sides are still far apart.”
