PMA neither loaded nor unloaded ships over the weekend, leaving yard and gate operations up to individual terminals.
Update: Contract negotiations between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and Pacific Maritime Association are set to resume following a two day break as congestion at West Coast ports continues to build.
According to Kip Louttit, executive director of the Marine Exchange of Southern California, there were 23 ships, eight less than yesterday, at anchor outside the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach on Monday morning at 7 a.m. due to congestion. The count included 16 containerships, four less than on Sunday.
West Coast terminals suspended vessel discharge and loading over the weekend, but PMA spokesman Wade Gates said terminals at several of the ports remained open for yard and gate operations. This included 11 of the 13 container terminals in the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach that conducted yard and gate operations Saturday during the dayshift, and seven of 13 on Sunday. Terminals processed containers for loading on trucks and rail.
PMA said based on preliminary updates, there were work orders coming in for 11 terminals in Los Angeles/Long Beach for the day shift Monday, including vessel gangs.
John Veentjer, the executive director of the Marine Exchange of Puget Sound, said that there were 13 containerships at anchor in Puget Sound on Monday morning, two more than any time since congestion began to grow recently. He said for the first time, ships were being anchored in Holmes Harbor.
In Oakland, Sean Kelley, director of the Coast Guard Vessel Traffic Service for San Francisco Bay, said there were three containerships at anchor in the bay and, according to the Port of Oakland, another 11 drifting offshore that are due to come to the port in the next few days.
PMA announced Friday that it was suspending vessel loading and unloading operations over the weekend. Gates said the decision was made because “After three months of union slowdowns, it makes no sense to pay extra for less work, especially if there is no end in sight to the union’s actions which needlessly brought West Coast ports to the brink of gridlock.”
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia said in a statement, “While ships won’t be loaded and unloaded, we have asked and been told by container terminals at the port complex that yard and gate operations will continue this weekend as normal.”
“We urge the ILWU and PMA to continue bargaining in good faith with the
federal mediator through the weekend to swiftly reach an agreement,” Mayors Garcetti and Garcia said. “We must return our port complex to efficient cargo
operations.”
PMA said the ILWU continues to limit operations by withholding the needed crane operators or operating slowly.
Craig Merrilees, a spokesman for the ILWU, said, “Closing the ports over the weekend is a crazy way to treat customers. The foreign-owned firms behind this move are insulting the businesses who need their containers, and should focus instead on reaching an agreement that is almost done – and could be finished if they focused more on concluding a contract and less on gimmicks and games that hurt the economy.”
Some carriers are now discharging cargo bound for Oakland in Los Angeles and Long Beach because of waiting times for berths and a desire to get ships back to the Far East more quickly, rather than wait for berths in both Southern California and Northern California.
Mike Zampa, a spokesman for the Port of Oakland, confirmed this was happening, but did not immediately know exactly how many carriers have decided to omit Oakland calls.
In a letter to customers on Wednesday, Maersk Line said, “Operations at The Port of Oakland have reached a critical level. To ensure that the overall flow of cargo continues while preventing excessive delays to cargo delivery, we announced last week the temporary omission of Oakland on our TP2 and TP6 services.”
Maersk said Oakland calls by the DS National on the TP6 string, which sailed from Xiamen on Jan. 19, and Gudrun Maersk on the TP2, which sailed from Shanghai on Jan. 21, will be omitted.
“As we are unable to perform our voyage to Oakland for both above mentioned sailings, under our contract of carriage (bill of lading) we are going to terminate all Oakland cargo in Los Angeles and Long Beach respectively,” the carrier said. “Cargo will be made available for pick-up at the pre-mentioned terminals. Empty equipment for Oakland cargo that has been discharged in Los Angeles or Long Beach will need to be returned to the respective terminal from which it was picked-up.”
Maersk also said calls to Oakland will be omitted for the MSC Renee and MSC Flavia on the TP6 service, and Gerner Maersk on the TP2.
Don Pisano, president of American Coffee and chairman of the ocean
committee of the National Industrial Transportation League, said the
requirement that empties be returned to the discharge port “makes
matters that much worse and far more costly for the beneficial cargo
owners.”
Hanjin Shipping is omitting calls in February to the Port of Portland
on a service that is also used by other members of the CKYHE Alliance.
Jonathan Gold, vice president of supply chain at the National Retail Federation called on the ILWU and PMA to “stop holding the supply chain community hostage. Get back to the negotiating table, work with the federal mediator and agree on a new labor contract.
“Temporarily suspending port operations is just another example of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and Pacific Maritime Association shooting themselves in the collective bargaining foot,” said Gold. “The continuing slowdowns and increasing congestion at West Coast ports are bringing the fears of a port shutdown closer to a reality.
“The entire the supply chain – from agriculture to manufacturing and retail to transportation – has been dealing with the lack of a West Coast port contract for the last nine months,” he added.
The two sides have been bargaining since May 12 on a contract to replace a pact that expired on July 1 of last year.
“Enough is enough. The escalating rhetoric, the threats, the dueling press releases and the inability to find common ground between the two sides are simply driving up the cost of products, jeopardizing American jobs and threatening the long term viability of businesses large and small,” said Gold.
