Following over a year of negotiations, labor negotiations at US West Coast ports have stalled, resulting in a wave of strikes.
As reported by Splash247.com, the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), which represents more than 22,000 dock workers at West Coast ports, said Friday that dockworkers were “staging concerted and disruptive work actions” that had stopped or severely disrupted operations stretching from terminals at southern California’s big container port complex at Los Angeles and Long Beach to Seattle, with Oakland suffering the largest disruptions.
The industry group representing shippers announced that operations at some marine terminals at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach were “effectively shut down.”
The latest work actions come as labor talks between the PMA and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) stretch into their 13th month.
ILWU International President Willie Adams in a statement said talks are ongoing. He vowed to continue fighting for members who kept goods flowing through the COVID-19 shutdowns, risking severe illness and even death. The contract covering those members expired in July.
“We aren’t going to settle for an economic package that doesn’t recognize the heroic efforts and personal sacrifices of the ILWU workforce that lifted the shipping industry to record profits,” when cargo surged during the early days of the pandemic, Adams said.
West Coast ports handled 40% of US container imports in the first quarter of this year, down from 45% in the same period in 2019.
Shippers who have chosen to route their ships to the East Coast have faced additional challenges as the Panama Canal, where severe drought – and the likely onset of the El Niño weather phenomenon, is introducing a series of draft restrictions.
Fortune reports that the draft limit for the larger vessels is now 44.5 feet, down from the normal 50 feet, and is set to fall again to 44 feet on June 13. That could result in a 40% reduction of cargo, according to Nathan Strang, head of ocean freight at Flexport Inc., a freight forwarder.
If water levels hit 78.2 feet as the canal authority predicts, the maximum draft will decline to 43 feet, reducing cargo capacity even more.
Felixstowe Port which handles the largest container ships in the world are introducing AI-controlled autonomous battery powered trucks so this Union should be more concerned as to whether their members and their own staff will have a job soon rather than pricing themselves in a position where that is more likely to happen sooner in US ports.