by Tom Price

The arrival of three giant cranes at the Port of Prince Rupert, British Columbia on Aug. 20 signaled more work for ILWU Canada’s Local 505. The Fairview Container Terminal opened Sept. 12, and it will immediately add 500,000 TEU (twenty-foot container equivalents) in new capacity to the port, with much more to come.

“With the increase in work, Local 505 has recently registered more than 150 new employees and re-activated another 50 former registrations,” Local 505 Secretary-Treasurer Tom MacDonald said. “When combined with the current employees our workforce, union and casuals, is now more than 300.”

Chinese officials from the Port of Ningbo attended the ceremony. The two ports have entered a “friendship agreement” to promote container traffic. COSCO, the Chinese government-owned line, will make its first call Oct. 31, according to The Journal of Commerce.

Located in the northwest corner of British Columbia, 436 miles closer by sea to Shanghai than Vancouver, the port is located on a great circle route that makes it a couple days closer to Asia than U.S. ports. Served by a world-class railway, the Canadian National (CN), Prince Rupert is also several days closer to the central and eastern U.S. markets. The Port plans to increase capacity to 4 million TEUs in the few years, and has room for more. CN will contribute to a $161 million intermodal facility for the port and dedicate 65 new locomotives to move the cans.

CN has direct railway lines to Memphis, Tenn., the third largest rail hub in the U.S. The Memphis rail hub takes about 60 percent of its containers from ILWU ports in Southern California, according to an article by Don Whiteley in BC Business Magazine. CN’s land speed advantage complements Prince Rupert’s ocean-going efficiencies to avoid congestion and move more West Coast freight.
Prince Rupert can also provide fast export of fresh meat from the Province of Manitoba, Whitely reported.

Local 523, which handles coal loading at Prince Rupert, will not directly benefit from the increased container work, President Ron Coolin said. “Glen Edwards [Local 505 president] did a lot of work for this and showed really good leadership,” Coolin said. He credited Edwards and ILWU Canada President Tom Dufresne for making sure members got proper training and for keeping the port union.