By James Spinosa
ILWU International President
Everyone groans at the thought of Christmas shopping in mid-summer, but retailers are already stocking up for the winter shopping frenzy, kicking off the peak shipping season. Record volumes of imports feeding into an ill-prepared transportation system threaten to create an unprecedented level of port congestion. This congestion in turn endangers the country’s economic health and national security as well as the safety everyone who lives and works on or near the docks.
The employers are trying to blame the backup on the union. In fact, this crisis has been brewing for a long time and has many linked causes. The ILWU has proposed solutions over and over, but we can address only part of the problem and we can’t do it alone. Our members need to see through all the rhetorical smoke and understand that the union wants to talk about solutions.
Since we approved our current contract with the Pacific Maritime Assn. (PMA) in early 2003, total container volume of imports has increased by 10 percent. This is not unexpected. For the last several years, the employers have been seeing projections that the volume of cargo coming in to the West Coast would double and triple by 2020. Now the new generation of super-sized container ships is coming on line, ships that bring in nearly 40 percent more cargo than the older models.
The employers have ignored the warnings, moving slowly to accommodate this growth either with infrastructure improvements, appointment systems, or increased ILWU registration.
The union warned of labor shortages many times during the past 10 years. We recently gave the PMA a proposal to substantially increase the workforce at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the largest and most congested under ILWU jurisdiction. The union proposed registering 2,000 more “B” members in longshore Local 13 and adding 8,000-11,000 casuals. Recently the employers have agreed to smaller increases in staffing. This is a step in the right direction .
Having more ILWU members available for work can speed loading and unloading of cargo and allow for expanded hours of operation and better port security, but it will not address the problems plaguing the truck and rail systems.
On the railroad side, the employers need to address the labor and equipment shortages resulting from their own poor planning. They now plan to increase train crews and buy new locomotives and cars. That is a good sign. We need to do more to get the containers to the rail yards in a way that the trains can be made up efficiently.
If the terminals, steamship lines and railroad yards coordinated their needs, containers could flow from the dock to rail yard on a priority basis. This would speed the trains and more efficiently use trucks, tracks and railcars. The union stands ready to help, and our clerks have the knowledge to make it work.
Other operational solutions could also be put in place. An appointment system for truckers and 24-hour gates would save time, cut congestion and reduce air pollution. The union has supported low-emissions equipment and tried to negotiate reduced diesel emissions as a health and safety regulation in the 2002 contract. The employers resisted these solutions.
The same practices that are slamming the port truck drivers are thickening the congestion at the ports. They have their roots in the industry deregulation of the 1980s.
Before deregulation rates were regulated by the Interstate Commerce Commission so trucking companies could make money. Deregulation launched a downward spiral of cutthroat competition. Trucking companies could no longer afford to maintain fleets, so the work fell to independent owner-operators.
These operators bear all their own expenses and get paid by the load. The more crowded the docks get, the fewer trips truckers can make each day. Trucking companies respond by putting more operators on the road, causing more congestion.
Truckers lose more time and money because some steamship lines hoard safe chassis, and give truckers beat-up chassis that have to go to the repair shop before they can carry a load. Terminal operators need to take responsibility for the road-worthiness of the chassis. This would save truckers time and speed the flow of cargo. The ILWU is supporting Teamster-backed bills in Congress (HR-2863 and S-1776) that would assign legal responsibility for chassis safety to terminal operators rather than truckers.
The recent spike in diesel fuel prices proved the last straw for these truckers. Some are going out of business. Others are organizing. They withdrew their labor in two large-scale actions on the East, Gulf and West Coasts over the last few weeks. So far these actions have had little effect, but in our eyes it will be difficult to make port trucking more efficient without correcting the balance of power between these truckers and the terminal operators who set their rates.
Truckers also need to be part of the information system on the docks, linked by internet technology so that marine clerks can send orders to their companies and they can dispatch quickly to the terminal to meet their appointments.
The union has also proposed separate off-dock yards where containers can be transshipped as another strategy for relieving congestion.
Retailers, who insist on “just-in-time” delivery, bear some responsibility for congestion too, since they’re effectively using the docks to supplement their warehouses and passing on that cost to the rest of the transport system. They also need to keep their warehouses open for evening and night shifts so a 24-hour gate operation can provide the maximum relief possible.
Congestion also adds to the challenge of providing port security. More people will be needed to do adequate inspection on container empties, seals and documentation. The union has advocated strongly in Washington D.C. for these measures. Many employers have skimped on security to keep costs down.
These solutions will require cooperation and a vision that places the country’s security and economic well-being ahead of profit. The steamship, stevedoring, truck and rail companies all look after their own interests rather than those of the cargo stream as a whole.
The interests of ILWU members lie in keeping the flow of work steady and maintaining our jobs. This, of necessity, requires the union to see the entire picture and commit to finding solutions that protect the security of the communities we live in and keep our economy running.
