West coast ports - labor unrest

[Tradd]

This is what it looks like off LA/LGB these days. These pics are a few days old.

https://imgur.com/a/quS8p

If you want more detail, I'll give it to you. I'm dealing with this all day, every day, as a result of my work.

[iris lilies]

This is what it looks like off LA/LGB these days. These pics are a few days old.

https://imgur.com/a/quS8p

If you want more detail, I'll give it to you. I'm dealing with this all day, every day, as a result of my work.

I haven't talked to my friend who is in shipping about this, but she always has plenty to say about the huge salaries of the union dock workers in LA and their issues. $100,000 is a typical salary there.

[jp1]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2015/02/09/west-coast-port-strike-do-what-ronald-reagan-did-to-the-air-traffic-controllers/

According to this article the wages are even higher than that, IL. As things are currently structured (assuming the article is accurate) I can't blame the unions. It sounds like the ports are bringing in big profits and it only makes sense that the workers who actually make it happen should get their share. That said, I also agree with the article's point that the west coast port monopoly needs to be broken up. Competition among them would bring down prices and ports whose management didn't reign in labor costs would become uncompetitive and lose business, the result being that high priced workers would get laid off. Ports that managed to negotiate more reasonable contracts with workers could offer better pricing for receiving shipments and would get more business, thus hiring more workers at reasonable wages.

[Tradd]

JP, the ILWU pulls this every 6-8 years. There was a 10 day shutdown in 2002 (the terminals locked the union out).

You talk of port competition, but here's the backstory:

LA/LGB together handle about 40% of all import containers to the US. The entire west coast handles about 50%. Moving that cargo elsewhere is not as easy as it looks. There are infrastructure issues. New York and Norfolk are handling more cargo, but they're having congestion issues themselves. Then there's the question of is there vessel capacity for other routings - over the east coast, gulf, or Canadian ports (Vancouver and Prince Rupert, BC). Plus you have to add in rail capacity out of the ports. The CN has actually been rationing how many containers it can handle out of Prince Rupert.

CP locomotive engineers are possibly going on strike as soon as Friday, which will really affect Vancouver, which is always a bottleneck and congested.

Portland, OR just lost the carrier that accounted for 75% of its business. Continuing labor (union) issues are partly to blame.

http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2015/02/port_of_portland_unlikely_to_r.html#incart_m-rpt-1

[jp1]

I'm not an expert on whether the author of the article is correct about the ports all being in a big monopoly. Regardless, if the ports are making money hand over fist then the workers should be too. If they're not the ports should be declaring bankruptcy, getting out of their bloated union contracts and someone else buying up the port on the cheap and reducing pricing to entice business. That's the way capitalism is supposed to work.

I'm sorry that you're having a stressful work situation, but I don't think socialism is the answer in this case. With competition the free market is the right answer. It just sounds like right now there's no competition.

[Tradd]

By law, only union members can be hired to work at the ports. If a new terminal was built in LA/LGB, they would have to employ ILWU members. That's the way things are. Declaring bankruptcy to get out of a contract doesn't work at the ports.

Ports are critical infrastructure that can't really be pitted against each other vs. things like two different companies making the same widget. There is a bit of competition, but it's not like a carrier can say they're not going to call LA/LGB at all. There's simply no place for the cargo to go instead. More terminals can be built, but it's not overnight. Due to environmental studies and the like, a new terminal can be a decade in the planning. There are small amounts of competition between different port cities, such as east coast ports dredging their harbors deeper so they can handle the new big ships once the Panama Canal widening is completed in 2016.

The amounts of money the union members are making is insane. Even a clerk sitting in the office makes over $100K a year. I don't trust either side much, but I'm more apt to believe the PMA than the union.

The union shot themselves in the foot up in Portland. The port is so small compared with Seattle that it won't hurt the carrier much to pull out of there.

[Tradd]

I'm shocked that the Prez is actually getting involved now, after refusing to before.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2015/02/14/white-house-to-intervene-in-west-coast-ports-strike/

[Spartana]

I live just down the street from Long Beach and can see all the vessels just sitting out there day in and day out. Pretty bizarre. My ex-DH is in charge of commercial vessel inspections for the ports of LA/LB and it sounds like with all the tankers and cargo ships sitting idle it makes his job easier :-)! Of course it will mean massive lay offs and work stoppages for many as well as the loss of something like a billion (yes billion) dollars a day to the US economy.

[sweetana3]

My little fabric store cannot work on a special project they have scheduled until a large fabric shipment is delivered and the info is that it is on one of those ships. Affecting large and small.

[Tradd]

Some articles from today:

Labor Sec'y held talks with both sides

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/02/18/labor-secretary-perez-west-coast-ports-ilwu-dispute/23611117/

Hurting the economy
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-18/west-coast-port-labor-fight-costs-u-s-economy-as-shipments-slow

Interesting article on the union
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ports-labor-20150218-story.html#page=1

[ToomuchStuff]

I talked with a friend who has a vending business. His supplies are running low, and his suppliers are still back ordered, awaiting the unloading of those ships. With China building the canal in Nicaragua, I can see them also building a hub in that country for shipping in other parts of the America's. I can also see them working on buying/building some ports of their own (via Mexico and working on tax/entry issues in Congress, or buying property in the south USA), and running their own. The union's are fighting a short term battle, in a war with a country that is thinking long term.

[Tradd]

A tentative deal has been reached.

http://www.nbcnews.com/business/economy/tentative-deal-reached-west-coast-ports-dispute-n310061

[iris lilies]

A tentative deal has been reached.

http://www.nbcnews.com/business/economy/tentative-deal-reached-west-coast-ports-dispute-n310061

So, what does that mean now for your work? Do you have weeks of 12 hours days where you have to play catch-up?

[Tradd]

I'm not sure. It's going to take a while to clear the backlog.