\u201cSignificant delays\u201d have hit some marine terminals at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach since the middle of last week, the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) said Monday, in the latest job action by dockworkers linked to ongoing West Coast contract negotiations.<\/p>\n
PMA, which represents terminal employers in the talks that have dragged on for more than 10 months, said longshore workers represented by Local 13 of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) have since last Wednesday refused to stagger their meal breaks as required, resulting in periods when no work is being done on the docks.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a result, longshore workers at the Ports of LA and Long Beach are not working the terminals between 12 pm-1 pm and 10 pm-11 pm, creating significant delays,\u201d PMA said in a statement. \u201cBecause the contract is not in place, there is no option for PMA to arbitrate the matter and require the union to man the terminals continuously without interruption.\u201d<\/p>\n
PMA provided media with photographs showing trucks backed up Friday at the Fenix Marine Terminal at the Port of Los Angeles and the ITS Terminal in Long Beach, long queues it said was the result of the job action.<\/p>\n
Longshore workers normally take staggered lunch breaks when the coastwide contract is in effect so as not to disrupt cargo handling. Typically, half of the longshore workers take their break from 11 am to noon and the other half from noon to 1 pm so terminal gates remain open for eight consecutive hours.<\/p>\n
Two sources close to the contract negotiations told the Journal of Commerce the job action was directed by Local 13 in Southern California over an intra-union matter involving a manning change. Although the change involves only terminals in Los Angeles and Long Beach, it must be included in the coastwide contract for it to take effect.<\/p>\n
Neither the PMA nor the ILWU commented specifically on the manning issue. But the fact the PMA statement specifically noted that ILWU Local 13 had stopped complying with the staggered lunch break requirement is telling because it suggests the disruptions in Southern California are not being directed by ILWU\u2019s international leadership.<\/p>\n
In a statement Monday, ILWU International President Willie Adams said longshore workers in Los Angeles and Long Beach are working every day according to terms agreed upon with the PMA. \u201cTerminal operators, however, open and close their gates at will,\u201d Adams said.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the West Coast\u2019s share of imports from Asia continues to erode as shippers divert discretionary cargo to the East and Gulf coasts in a bid to avoid the exact type of disruption taking place in LA-LB. Fresh data from PIERS, a sister product of the Journal of Commerce within S&P Global, shows that the share of Asian imports landing on the West Coast in February slipped to 53.2 percent, down from 54.5 percent in January and 60.4 percent last May when ILWU-PMA contract talks began.<\/p>\n
Contract talks at 10 months and counting<\/p>\n
PMA and ILWU began negotiations last May, and while some matters such as health benefits have been resolved, there has been no agreement to date on core issues such as automation, wages, and pension benefits. Sources close to the negotiations say they see no indication that progress is being made, despite a joint ILWU-PMA release issued in late February that the two sides expected a contract resolution \u201csoon.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beginning last fall, dockworkers in Oakland and the Northwest Seaport Alliance of Seattle and Tacoma have taken similar job actions on a sporadic basis, sources at the port and terminal level have told the Journal of Commerce. However, the PMA had never issued a statement on port-specific job actions until now.<\/p>\n
Source:<\/p>\n
Mongelluzzo, B. (2023, March 20). ILWU job action causing terminal gate delays in Los Angeles-long beach: PMA: Journal of Commerce<\/i>. ILWU job action causing terminal gate delays in Los Angeles-Long Beach: PMA | Journal of Commerce. Retrieved March 21, 2023, from https:\/\/www.joc.com\/article\/ilwu-job-action-causing-terminal-gate-delays-los-angeles-long-beach-pma_20230320.html<\/p>\n \u201cSignificant delays\u201d have hit some marine terminals at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach since the middle of last week, the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) said Monday, in the latest job action by dockworkers linked to ongoing West Coast contract negotiations. PMA, which represents terminal employers in the talks that have dragged on …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[84,83],"class_list":["post-2613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-maritime","tag-us-ports"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ems.cohesionfreight.com.hk:8080\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ems.cohesionfreight.com.hk:8080\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ems.cohesionfreight.com.hk:8080\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ems.cohesionfreight.com.hk:8080\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ems.cohesionfreight.com.hk:8080\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2613"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/ems.cohesionfreight.com.hk:8080\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2613\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2614,"href":"http:\/\/ems.cohesionfreight.com.hk:8080\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2613\/revisions\/2614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ems.cohesionfreight.com.hk:8080\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ems.cohesionfreight.com.hk:8080\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ems.cohesionfreight.com.hk:8080\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}