Oakland port idled following fatal dockworker accident
The backlog of more than a half-dozen cargo vessels left stranded by Tuesday's one-day walkout by Port of Oakland dockworkers could take up to a week to clear and leave ripples of congestion in its wake.
Members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union were expected to return to work today, following the Tuesday no-show that virtually shuttered the Northern California port — the nation's fourth busiest.
While the union did not officially call a general walkout, longshore workers failed to report to assignments Tuesday, following a container loading accident late Monday afternoon at the port that killed ILWU docker Reginald Ross.
The work stoppage idled hundreds of port and truck workers Tuesday, leaving the normally crowded Oakland terminals oddly silent and stranding seven cargo vessels scheduled to be unloaded at Oakland terminals. Port officials, who claimed that the accident was the first fatality at the Oakland complex in nearly seven years, told local media outlets that the backlog of vessels could take from five day to a week to clear out.
“We estimate maybe seven ships will be impacted by the shutdown of operations,” port spokesperson Marilyn Sandifur told insideBayArea.com. “When operations resume, we anticipate it will probably take anywhere from five to seven days to catch up on the backlog of work. That’s because other ships are scheduled to come in.”
Local warehouse and distribution center owners reported that the backlog of vessels, each of which was estimated to contain at least 2,000 FEUs, would be felt through the area for at least a week.
While area businesses were hesitant to speculate on the monetary losses from the one-day shutdown, a 2002 lockout of dockworkers by shipping companies at all 29 West Coast ports reportedly cost the nation’s economy up to $1 billion a day.
Under terms of the current six-year longshore contract, dockers are permitted to call a work stoppage on the next work shift at the specific terminal where a workplace fatality occurs, but the stoppage cannot extend to additional terminals or work shifts.
Officials at ILWU local 10, which represents the Oakland dockers, said the stoppage was not called by the union but was a personal decision by individual workers.
ILWU officials and representatives of the shipping lines quickly determined that the port-wide stoppage was in violation of the contract rules and that workers in violations of the rules would not be paid for the shifts they did not work.
Investigators from the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration were investigating Monday's fatal accident that killed Ross. Alameda County Coroner’s officials reported that Ross was apparently struck by a container as he was helping to unload the CMS Stuttgart Express, a Hapag-Lloyd container ship. While there were no eyewitnesses to the accident, which took place aboard the vessel, dockworkers told insideBayArea.com that Ross was lashing the crossbars on a container load together when he was struck in the chest by one of the steel lashing bars.