By James Spinosa
ILWU International President

The shipping industry on the West Coast is in a crisis, with dozens of ships backed up at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, turn-around times twice as long as usual and congestion on the docks exacerbating pollution and safety problems. Diverting ships to other West Coast ports has not relieved the problem in Southern California, but only spread it to those other docks. The entire cargo transportation system is overwhelmed, the current infrastructure and mode of operation pushed past its capabilities.

It’s not as if this wasn’t foreseen or isn’t the obvious result of policy decisions. Industry analysts have for the last decade been forecasting annual double-digit percentage growth in the number of containers hitting West Coast ports, with only 9-11 and the Pacific Maritime Association’s lockout in 2002 providing temporary speed bumps. The free trade agreements U.S. government officials have been promulgating have had the predicted effects—manufacturing jobs have been sent to Asia in search of cheap labor and since little is made here any more, all those goods must be shipped in. China’s monster economy continues to export at an accelerating rate and Wal-Mart’s Asian-made Christmas goods could by themselves overwhelm just about any port. And since the industry as a whole has done little to coordinate and prepare for it besides build bigger and bigger ships, the doomsday scenario industry analysts project “if something isn’t done soon” are coming true.

For more than three years now the ILWU has been proposing solutions, talking about long-term infrastructure needs and short-term fixes to get by in the meantime. But the ship owners and terminal operators who make up our employer group, the PMA, have ignored and resisted our proposals. This has to change if the industry both the union and the employers depend on is going to survive and grow, if our port communities are going go be healthy and sustainable and if the American economy is to thrive.

Clearly there has been a large underinvestment in the transportation infrastructure that needs to be addressed. The railroads need more locomotives, rail cars, track and skilled workers. Trucking needs expanded highways and rigs that burn cleaner fuels. Stevedore companies need off-dock terminals and staging areas to relieve congestion and cargo-handling equipment that burns cleaner fuels.

This is admittedly a huge investment, some of which must come from the industry, but much of which must come from government. But we’re not likely to get that kind of money until we’ve made the most of what we have now. And once funding is secured, these projects will still take time to complete and the crisis is upon us now. So we need to implement some immediate short-term solutions.

We need to start utilizing the infrastructure we have to its fullest capacity, and that means running the terminals 24/7. For several years now the ILWU has been advocating night gates. Spreading the truck traffic out over 16 or 24 hours instead of trying to squeeze it all into eight hours will reduce long lines of trucks idling and spewing diesel emissions. It will also give the truckers a chance to make more than the 1.7 turns a day they now average and make a better living. And it will reduce highway traffic during peak hours—fewer traffic jams equals less pollution.

Let’s be clear here. We are never going to get the buy-in for growth from port communities and elected officials as long as the ports are seen as the giant industrial pollution generator. We must make every incremental move possible to clean up our industry. ILWU members have a real stake in this—before these emissions become pollutants in the community they are in the air we breathe at work all day. And we live in these communities. We want to come home from work to healthy families and clean neighborhoods.

But terminal operators resisted the night gates proposal arguing, with some legitimacy, that truckers wouldn’t use them because they couldn’t drop off their loads with warehouses closed at those hours. So shippers, especially those with large warehouses, need to do their part and have their receiving operations working night hours.

Still, the terminal operators never took the night gates notion seriously until California Assembly member Alan Lowenthal threatened legislation to force the matter. Then they came forward with their own “voluntary” night gate program to start in November. So Lowenthal withdrew his bill. But now that plan is being postponed until next March.

The reason for the delay, say terminal operators, is the labor shortage at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. But that is the result of poor management planning. Since last February the leadership of South-ern California longshore Local 13 has been requesting PMA bring 2,000 casuals up to registered “B” status and sign up 5,000 new casuals. But it took until August, when the peak season crunch was upon us, for the employers to concede the wisdom of the union and begin promoting, hiring and training. The problem is that it takes months to train that many people and get them working effectively on the ground. By then the peak season will be over. Another bad management decision also contributes to the so-called “labor shortage.” As the railroads restricted the number of containers they would accept from each terminal and the docks backed up, container yards had to switch from “wheeled” operations, where containers are stored on chassis and are ready to roll, to “decked” operations, where containers are stacked three, four and five high. Decked operations require six times more skilled cargo-handling equipment operators to run top picks, side picks and strads. The union has been calling for more members to be trained on the heavy equipment, but the PMA has been slow to respond.

The employers’ solution has been to ask workers to double back, to work two shifts back-to-back. But fatigue is a major factor in accidents. And the congested docks with containers stacked high and more heavy equipment running around are raising the risks of an already dangerous job.

The last time we saw a situation this bad was in 2002 when we had a record five deaths in five months. We are not going to pay the price again to save employers from their own bad decision-making, especially since we warned them well in advance and offered solutions.

It is time for all stakeholders in the industry—ship owners, terminal operators, railroads, the trucking industry, shippers and the unions, along with the port communities, environmentalists and elected officials—to begin working together for real long-term solutions. And it’s time for all to start taking seriously the proposals of the people who do the work of running the industry day-to-day.