Coast Guard says ILWU endangers security in Oakland
The U.S. Coast Guard, in an effort to plug several security breaches at the Port of Oakland last fall, has put the West Coast longshoremen’s union on notice to quickly accept negotiated measures to control access to port facilities or face much stricter government-imposed security rules.
Local representatives for the International Longshoremen and Warehouse Union agreed in March to a plan for members to present at marine terminal gates identification cards and their reason for business on the docks, but has been too slow getting ILWU headquarters to sign off on the plan, according to Capt. W.J. Uberti, captain of the port and federal maritime security coordinator for Oakland.
“I find this unwillingness to compromise and lack of commitment to the security of our ports very troubling,” Uberti said in an April 7 letter to ILWU President James Spinosa, obtained from industry sources by Shippers’ NewsWire. “Barring your cooperation in this matter, I will be forced to work unilaterally to impose access control procedures required by federal regulation which your members may find overly burdensome.”
Under maritime security laws passed after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, terminal operators are required to control access to their facilities by checking identification and confirming a reason for entry. Vessels and port facilities develop Coast Guard-approved security plans for carrying out these and other measures to protect against terrorist or criminal infiltration.
The tighter measures in Oakland follow several incidents last year in which a man sneaked into terminals and stowed away on three cargo vessels by impersonating a longshoreman, Uberti said in an interview. The stowaway, Matthew Gains, was finally arrested and is in jail, he said.
The Coast Guard determined that ships were not checking identification as required and that access control measures at the Oakland terminals were not adequate. The agency instructed facilities to immediately strengthen their security plans and convened the Area Maritime Security Committee, which includes government and industry stakeholders, to find ways to further close the gap in security.
Based on recommendations from a vessel workgroup, Uberti ordered facilities to provide the vessel with a list of shore-based workers who have legitimate business onboard a vessel and for the crew to check valid photo identification and verify the name or unique ID number, according to the letter.
A separate workgroup on facility access control that included representatives from the ILWU and the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) — which negotiate and administers labor contracts with the ILWU on behalf of terminals, stevedores and ocean carriers — took more than two months and “several spirited meetings” to agree on ways for longshoremen to enter terminals, Uberti said.
Under the compromise, ILWU members reporting to work must, as determined by individual terminals, present either:
* A photo ID issued by the PMA and an ILWU work ticket for that day.
* A PMA photo ID with the name checked against a pre-approved access list.
* A PMA smart card with an embedded ID number in a computer chip that can be swiped through a card reader.
The new system is designed to close loopholes stemming from the existing labor contract that governs work rules between longshoremen and terminals in Oakland and other West Coast ports by providing facilities an advance list of longshoremen scheduled for work each day. Under the master contract, the union can dispatch any worker to any terminal at any time to unload or load vessels.
The compromise plan for using a smart card requires the union supervisor to present a list of workers to the terminal or stevedoring company one hour before the start of the work shift and the facility security officer to compare the list against the gate card reader to track all workers.
The ILWU is concerned that the smart cards will be used for other purposes to track and discipline workers. Uberti said he would work with the terminals to make sure that the cards are only used to verify an individual’s status as a valid ILWU member for facility access control purposes.
An ILWU spokesman did not return calls seeking comment.
Uberti urged the PMA and ILWU to address the dispatch process during their next contract negotiations. The six-year contract is scheduled to expire in 2009.
He told Shippers’ NewsWire that the local ILWU chapter is waiting for concurrence from ILWU headquarters to implement the access control agreement. But in his letter to Spinosa he suggested that the ILWU appears unwilling to accept the negotiated arrangement.
“I request that the ILWU reconsider their position on agreeing to the use of new PMA embedded number cards,” Uberti wrote.
The Coast Guard and the Transportation Security Administration have been working on a universal Transportation Worker Identification Credential with biometric information about the cardholder once the program is implemented, now scheduled for sometime next year.
