Several US ports along the US East and Gulf coasts are working under contingency plans ahead of a possible strike by dockworkers on Oct. 1, including extending terminal hours and implementing deadlines for operations.<\/p>\n
The plans come amid the increasing likelihood that the International Longshoremen\u2019s Association (ILA) will not reach an agreement with the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) on a new master contract covering East and Gulf coast dockworkers. ILA President Harold Daggett has said the union will not agree to an extension once the current contract expires on Monday, Sept. 30.<\/p>\n
Port of Virginia outlines closure schedule<\/p>\n
The Port of Virginia will begin stopping cargo operations on Sept. 30, according to port officials, with the last inbound train delivery scheduled for 8 am. Additionally, all inbound truck gates will close at noon. In a statement, the port said use of its Trucker Reservation System (TRS) is \u201cstrongly encouraged\u201d on Sept. 30.<\/p>\n
At 1 pm on Sept. 30, ocean operations will stop, vessels will be required to sail, and the last outbound train will leave, the port said. All motor carriers must leave the port at that time. At 6 pm, all other container operations will halt. Reefer units will remain plugged in but will not be monitored.<\/p>\n
The Virginia Port Authority\u2019s privately held terminal operating company, Virginia International Terminals, will not be charging demurrage for containers in the terminal during the strike.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce an agreement has been reached, the Port of Virginia will implement its resumption of operations plan and methodically and safely bring terminals back online,\u201d the VPA said.<\/p>\n
New Orleans adds Saturday hours<\/p>\n
The Port of New Orleans has issued similar deadlines, but added Saturday hours at the New Orleans Terminal from 8 am to 5 pm on Sept. 28, with a one-hour break from noon to 1 pm. Port officials said any work stoppage from the strike will not increase demurrage charges.<\/p>\n
At the New Orleans Terminal, which serves Mediterranean Shipping Co., Maersk and Zim Integrated Shipping Services, vessel operations will halt at noon on Sept. 30, with rail and gate operations stopping at 4 pm. Receipt of export reefer containers ends at 4 pm Sept. 27 and import reefers must be out of the gate by 4 pm Sept. 30 \u201cunless prior approval is obtained from New Orleans Terminal,\u201d according to the port.<\/p>\n
At Port NOLA\u2019s Ports America terminal \u2014 serving CMA CGM, Hapag-Lloyd, Seaboard, Evergreen, COSCO, OOCL and Yang Ming \u2014 deadlines for vessel operations have not yet been made public, but gate operations will conclude Sept. 30 at 4 pm. Import reefers must be out of the gate at that same time, whereas customers are responsible for ensuring export reefers are loaded by Sept. 30. Mirroring the situation at the Port of Virginia, reefers will remain plugged in, but will not be monitored, during a work stoppage.<\/p>\n
Jacksonville expecting partial impact<\/p>\n
In Jacksonville, a strike is expected to affect one-third of the Port of Jacksonville\u2019s (JAXPORT\u2019s) business, port officials said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe remaining two-thirds of JAXPORT\u2019s business, including Puerto Rico cargo, will continue normally,\u201d the port said. \u201cIn addition, none of JAXPORT\u2019s 172 direct employees are ILA members, so all workers directly employed by JAXPORT will continue to work, which means all JAXPORT main gates and administrative functions will remain open regular operating hours.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, customers are encouraged to contact their terminal operators as they are responsible for establishing operating hours.<\/p>\n
The Alabama Port Authority said it is monitoring the potential effects of a strike at the Port of Mobile, where its container terminal is managed by APM Terminals.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, ports in the southern US are preparing for another potential impact to operations \u2014 the threat of Tropical Storm Helene, which is forecast to strengthen and make landfall along Florida\u2019s Gulf Coast early Thursday.<\/p>\n
Source:<\/p>\n
Robb, L. (2024, September 24). More US ports reveal contingency plans as Ila strike deadline inches closer<\/i>. Journal of Commerce. https:\/\/www.joc.com\/article\/more-us-ports-reveal-contingency-plans-as-ila-strike-deadline-inches-closer-5733992<\/p>\n Several US ports along the US East and Gulf coasts are working under contingency plans ahead of a possible strike by dockworkers on Oct. 1, including extending terminal hours and implementing deadlines for operations. The plans come amid the increasing likelihood that the International Longshoremen\u2019s Association (ILA) will not reach an agreement with the United …<\/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-3079","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\/3079","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=3079"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/ems.cohesionfreight.com.hk:8080\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3079\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3080,"href":"http:\/\/ems.cohesionfreight.com.hk:8080\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3079\/revisions\/3080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ems.cohesionfreight.com.hk:8080\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ems.cohesionfreight.com.hk:8080\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ems.cohesionfreight.com.hk:8080\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}