The ILWU is taking steps to safeguard dockworkers and the public from thousands of potentially explosive refrigerated shipping containers that have been arriving from overseas ports.
Killings spark company report
The ILWU first learned about the hazard on October 20. Officials at the world’s largest carrier, Maersk, notified an industry group earlier in October – but only after three dockworkers in foreign ports had been killed by explosions involving refrigerated shipping containers, known as “reefers.”
Company cost-cutting to blame?
Experts in the shipping industry have apparently known since early 2011 that counterfeit or substandard refrigerant was being used by vendors in Vietnam who provided low-cost maintenance and servicing of reefers.
What’s causing the explosions?
One theory is that the fake refrigerant may react with aluminum in the reefer’s compressor, resulting in a mix that burns or explodes when it comes into contact with air. It can apparently result in compressor ruptures, spontaneous combustion, explosions and fire.
Workers killed in Vietnam & Brazil
The story went public after World Cargo News reported on October 26 that a dozen explosions had “been linked to refrigeration units that had received gas repairs in Vietnam…” The report noted that that three workers have been killed so far by the exploding containers— two in Vietnam and one in Brazil.
What to do with the containers?
Many reefers were being quarantined at locations around the world, but questions remained about what to do with potentially at-risk containers after they arrived on West Coast docks.
“It’s impossible to know which containers might pose deadly combustion hazards just by looking at them,” said ILWU Coast Committeeman, Leal Sundet. “Our union wants to see workers protected on the docks and the public protected in the community — which is why we’re insisting that any dangerous containers be identified and removed from circulation before another person is killed. The terminal operators need to put safety first and work with us to ensure that only safe containers leave the docks.”
Companies reject safest solutions
ILWU officials in Oakland, California, asked the companies to provide complete transit documentation in order to know which containers had transited Vietnam during the last year. The goal was to remove potentially lethal containers from circulation until more information could be obtained and an agreement reached on a safe solution.
Failure to disclose sparks action
When terminal operators failed to provide the necessary safety information, work came to a halt at Oakland’s SSA terminal on October 29 and the TraPac terminal on October 30. The dispute continued as companies argued over how much information and transparency they were willing to provide.
Companies fired several gangs of Local 10 members who refused to work on containers that were unsafe or lacked proper documentation. An area arbitrator issued four rulings that sided with the companies, setting the stage for a hearing by the Coast Arbitrator.
Coast Arbitrator ruling
On November 6, Coast Arbitrator John Kagel ordered four rulings by the Northern California Area Arbitrator to be held in abeyance, and directed Northern California employers to follow stricter protocols established by Washington State Area Arbitrator Herald Ugles that required companies to provide records for all reefers that transited Vietnam in 2011.
Three days later after a seven-hour hearing, the Coast Arbitrator issued a decision with a definition for at-risk reefers: “A reefer container which, in 2011 in Vietnam, at Cat Lai or elsewhere in that country, had maintenance and repair work to the mechanism of the reefer unit that involves refrigerant fluids is an at-risk container If that maintenance and repair work did not involve that mechanism, but to other unit mechanisms such as electrical
systems or, for example, repairs to exterior dents which do not implicate the
refrigeration mechanism of the reefer unit, the container is not at-risk.”
Companies are now providing the union with transit information for all reefers and are providing maintenance and repair records for any that transited Vietnam in 2011. As a result, at-risk containers are now being according to safety protocols. Compromise to protect workers and the public
“Arbitration decisions usually involve compromises,” said ILWU International President Bob McEllrath, “but this ruling met our main goals of protecting workers and the public. McEllrath credited the victory to “everyone on the docks who stood up for safety and refused to back down when lives were at stake and pressure from the companies was intense.”