WEST COAST PORTS SAY CARGO IS MOVING DESPITE PARTIAL LABOR SHIFTS
Sources at West Coast ports told Shippers' NewsWire Friday that their operations had resumed with few incidents, except in Seattle, where there have been alleged labor slowdowns at least one terminal in the port.
In Long Beach, a port source said, “it’s really hard to tell about productivity. Everyone is working, but it’s hard to say what their pace actually is. Fridays are slow days for us, in normal times. I’m surprised that things seem slow today, but they do. Ships are coming in, but there are not a lot of them at the berths.”
In Los Angeles, spokesperson Teresa Adams Lopez said, “we have had no incidents of any kind in the last 24 hours, and everything is going very smoothly. Our concern at the moment is about trucks blocking streets outside the terminal, where there is a lot of congestion.”
In Oakland, a port media source said, “the PMA has told us that not all of its orders for labor have been filled by the union.”
“We’re not having congestion problems. We have berths available. We have had issues with union shifts. There’s a noticeable lack of skilled labor and supervision. Container picks at two of our terminals are running in the low 20s per hour, normally they’d being doing picks in the low 30s.”
“Asian ocean carriers have been sequencing their vessels, actually turning away some dry export and lower-revenue cargo. Beneficial cargo shippers are scrambling to find space,” another Oakland port source said.
In Seattle, container picks of 10 or less an hour, due to a alleged lack of labor provided by the International Longshore & Warehouse Union on Friday, are said to have occurred at one terminal.
The Pacific Maritime Association, which represents port employers, had no comment on orders for labor. The ILWU said it was complying with the PMA’s requests.