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Work is on-off-on again at Port of Oakland

Northern California port shut down briefly after disagreement over labor break time.

   No sooner had members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and Pacific Maritime Association announced in San Francisco on Friday that they had reached an agreement on a new five-year contract operations across San Francisco Bay came to a halt.
   The Port of Oakland, which posts regular updates on operations on its website, said work resumed at its terminals “Saturday night, Feb. 21, and continued Sunday morning only to be suspended for the remainder of the day shift” after a labor-management dispute over break time.
   Vessel handling resumed once again at the Port of Oakland on Sunday during the night shift with five vessels being loaded and unloaded and another three scheduled for operations. Some requested jobs went unfilled.
   PMA said an area arbitrator ruled longshoremen affiliated with ILWU’s Local 10 conducted illegal work-stoppages and said it would “continue to address any future work stoppages by Local 10 through the grievance and arbitration process, and, if necessary, in court.’’
   On Saturday, the Port of Oakland said it had 11 vessels at berth and 16 awaiting berths.

Chris Dupin

Chris Dupin has written about trade and transportation and other business subjects for a variety of publications before joining American Shipper and Freightwaves.