West Coast longshore employers and dockworkers engaged in negotiations for a new contract are discussing a proposal that would allow marine terminals to open their gates at 6 a.m., according to the president of terminal operator SSA Containers. The potential change has the support of truckers who work the ports, saying it would add an hour to what they consider the most productive time of the day.
Allowing the so-called “double-flex” gates is not a controversial issue, said Ed DeNike, president of SSA Containers, who referenced the extended gate proposal at the JOC Port Performance webcast Tuesday. It’s just a matter of working out the details during the ongoing coastwide contract negotiations in San Francisco between the International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU) and the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), he said.
“It’s not possible under the current contract. We can flex at 7 a.m. Maybe there’s a chance to flex at 6 a.m.,” DeNike said. SSA Marine operates container terminals in Seattle, Oakland, and Long Beach.
Harbor truckers say getting earlier access each day to containers would fit in nicely with the schedules of truckers, shippers, and warehouses. “The expanded hours would definitely help,” Matt Schrap, CEO of the Harbor Trucking Association, told JOC.com Wednesday. “We’ve wanted this for some time.”
The long-standing work shifts, as specified in the current coastwide contract that expires July 1, are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., 6 p.m. to 3 a.m., and the late night “hoot” shift from 3 a.m. to 8 a.m. The contract also allows terminals to “flex” the start times one hour early, but not by two hours. Longshoremen by contract provisions earn overtime pay whenever they start early.
Warehouses and truckers say the early-morning hours fit best into their operations. “The earlier the better,” said Scott Weiss, vice president technical sales at Performance Team, which operates warehouses throughout the country.
‘Big line of trucks’ for 7 a.m. start
In order to open their gates at 6 a.m. without the double-flex provision, terminals would have to run the entire hoot shift from 3 a.m. to 8 a.m., which is quite costly, as longshoremen on that shift are paid for eight hours of work for five hours on the job. The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, at the urging of the White House port productivity task force, have experimented sporadically with hoot shifts since last fall.
Terminals that have experimented with the hoot shifts said they generated little, if any, truck traffic because most warehouses in Southern California do not operate on a 24/7 basis. However, DeNike said trucks begin lining up at 6 a.m. each morning at SSA-operated terminals awaiting the opening of the 7 a.m. flex gate. “It’s quite a big line of trucks,” he said.
Schrap said that in order to make the 6 a.m. gates truly beneficial for truckers, all 12 container terminals in Los Angeles-Long Beach should open at that time so drivers can build those gates hours into their schedules. “The most important thing is consistency throughout the harbor,” he said.
The PMA and ILWU have a media blackout during the negotiations and do not answer questions on specific issues under discussion.