Longshoreman drowns at Oakland port
A 77-year-old dockworker 'walking boss' at the Port of Oakland apparently drowned late Saturday evening after being knocked from a container vessel, the U.S. Coast Guard said.
Delmont Blakeney, an International Longshore and Warehouse Union supervisor, was assisting in the unloading of containers from the NYK Starlight when a locking device came loose on the vessel causing a container to spin out of control. The container momentarily pinned the veteran dockworker to a railing before knocking him into the harbor.
A co-worker told local television station KTVU that Blakeney was able to swim to the edge of the dock, but because of the height of the dock and the lack of ladders down to the water, Blakeney was unable to climb out of the water.
According to ILWU officials, dockworkers on the scene reportedly spent at least 30 minutes trying to find a ladder to get down to the water from the elevated dock while Blakeney floated in the water below them.
The union said by the time he was pulled from the water, Blakeney was unconscious and attempts to perform CPR were unable to revive him. he was transported to an area hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Union officials are blaming the lack of adequate safety equipment for Blakeney's death.
'We need to have ladders that can reach folks who go in the water,' ILWU spokesman Craig Merrilees told KTVU. Workers on the dock 'went all over trying to piece together something to save him, to pull him out of the water. By the time they were able to get to him, he had been in that frigid water for 30 minutes.'
The 1,000 members of the ILWU that serve the Oakland port did not report to work on Sunday as union members observed a day of mourning.
Blakeney is the second ILWU worker to die at the Port of Oakland in less than a year. Last September, a 39-year-old longshoreman was killed after apparently being struck in the chest by a container-lashing bar while aboard a vessel at dock.