Stevedore sues over Matson Hawaiian docker hirings
A Hawaiian stevedoring firm has filed a federal lawsuit against Matson Navigation Co., alleging the ocean carrier tried to hire away most of the stevedore's docker workforce and also used confidential insider information to lure away employees.
Filed Feb. 21 in U.S. District Court by Honolulu-based McCabe Hamilton & Renny Co., the suit names Matson Navigation and the Oakland-based shipping giant's stevedoring arm, Matson Terminals Inc., as defendants.
McCabe alleges in the suit that Matson attempted to hire away McCabe's International Longshore and Warehouse Union workers, creating a situation that would leave the stevedoring firm 'unable to continue its business.' The suit goes on to charge that Matson's hiring moves were anticompetitive and could lead to a monopoly in the Hawaiian stevedoring services.
The suit also alleges that Matson misused confidential information to aid in the attempted hirings. McCabe declares in the filing that the firm volunteered the 'highly valuable' information to Matson, including McCabe business information and trade secrets, during negotiations over a failed buyout of McCabe by Matson in 2005.
The suit claims that, 'Any confidential information or trade secrets communicated by McCabe to Matson were communicated under a clear understanding by Matson that they were to be used solely for the limited purpose for which they were provided.'
McCabe, the oldest general stevedoring firm in Hawaii, is asking the court to bar the defendants from hiring the workers and declare that any such hiring would result in an illegal monopoly by Matson. The suit also asks for unspecified damages and legal expenses.
While refusing to discuss the specific charges, Matson officials said the shipping line was not trying to hire away McCabe employees.
Spokesman Jeff Hull told the Honolulu Advertiser that while Matson has contracted longshore labor through McCabe, the workers are members of the ILWU under contract to McCabe and not directly employees of the stevedoring firm.
Hull explained that Matson is trying to restructure its ILWU hiring in order to create a dedicated Matson workforce of about 100 dockers at the firm's Oahu terminal.
'Rather than contracting through McCabe, we would hire directly,' Hull told the paper. 'They would become Matson employees.”
Hull said the goal of a dedicated workforce is to improve service to customers.
More than 90 percent of all goods moving into Hawaii do so via water. Matson provides about 70 percent of the U.S. Mainland to Hawaii capacity.