The Port of Charleston’s Hugh K. Leatherman marine terminal is ramping up operations after the South Carolina Ports Authority (SC Ports) and the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) reached a settlement in a long-running dispute that has kept the terminal largely offline since its opening in 2021.
The agreement, which follows the ILA’s de-facto victory in a legal case that almost reached the US Supreme Court, gives Leatherman’s crane operators “a choice to remain state employees or become an ILA member,” SC Ports said in a statement. State employees at its other container terminals can also elect to become ILA members, or they can remain an employee of SC Ports.
The deal also effectively increases Charleston’s container handling capacity by a third at a time when the port is working to clear a backlog of five ships waiting to unload.
SC Ports said in the statement its board of directors at a meeting Tuesday approved a “framework for the transition and change in labor staffing” at the Leatherman terminal that will allow ocean carriers in the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) to call the Leatherman terminal without the threat of violating their master contract with the ILA. SC Ports said the deal creates “long-term stability and competitiveness” for Charleston.
“It is now a new day, and we must cooperatively adapt to the reality of the new labor staffing allocation,” SC Ports Chief Executive Barbara Melvin told the board of a directors, according to a transcript of the meeting obtained Wednesday. “And that means working collaboratively with the ILA in a way to get Hugh K. Leatherman Terminal reopened as quickly as possible.”
Details please refer to JOC news.
Source:
Angell, M. (2024b, June 28). Near-normal water levels allowing more ship transits through Panama Canal. Journal of Commerce. https://www.joc.com/article/near-normal-water-levels-allowing-more-ship-transits-through-panama-canal_20240628.html