ILWU Pres McEllrath Begs PMA Not To Lock Them Out “Closing the ports at this point would be reckless and irresponsible,”

ILWU Pres McEllrath Begs PMA Not To Lock Them Out “Closing the ports at this point would be reckless and irresponsible,”
Top official says West Coast ports ‘on the brink of collapse’
http://www.dailybreeze.com/business/20150204/top-official-says-west-coas...

Trucks stream into the Maersk terminal near sundown as cargo containers fill the yard in San Pedro, CA on Thursday, January 29, 2015. With port operations all but shut down during the night, the shipping yards are filled with mountains of containers as ships wait offshore to enter the harbor and unload their cargo. (Photo by Scott Varley, Daily Breeze)
By Karen Robes Meeks, The Daily Breeze
POSTED: 02/04/15, 3:35 PM PST | UPDATED: 45 SECS AGO3 COMMENTS
West Coast ports are five to 10 days away from gridlock and a forced lockdown unless contract talks can be resolved with the longshore workers union, the head of the group representing employers at 29 West Coast ports said Wednesday.

Publicly discussing labor talks for the first time since negotiations began in May, Pacific Maritime Association CEO James McKenna told reporters in a conference call that the PMA made its latest offer to the International Longshore and Warehouse Union that includes raising pay by about 3 percent annually, maintaining employer paid health care and pushing the maximum pension benefit by 11.1 percent to $88,800 annually.

He described the proposed five-year contract, which was presented Tuesday to the ILWU, as “generous” and “comprehensive.” Still, he said that both sides remain far apart on six issues, including wages, pensions and the arbitration process.

McKenna said that an agreement must be reached soon because West Coast ports are on “the brink of collapse” with ships parked along the West Coast waiting to be unloaded and production slowing to a crawl. A work stoppage could drain $2 billion a day from the U.S. economy, according to the National Retail Federation, National Association of Manufacturers and U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Only 50 percent of cargo is being moved through the Pacific Northwest, while yards remained crowded with containers in Southern California. McKenna blamed some of that congestion on the ILWU, which he said refuses to dispatch crane operators. (The ILWU has consistently refuted this claim, saying PMA did not train enough operators for the jobs.)

“The system can only take so much,” McKenna said. “At some point, this will collapse under its own weight.”

Seventeen container ships remained at anchor Wednesday at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, according to the Marine Exchange of Southern California.

The ILWU said this is the second time in recent memory that employers have threatened to shut down the ports when negotiations are approaching their final stages and added that the union hasn’t been on strike over a contract since 1971.

Union officials said despite congestion — which they say is caused by employers — they will keep the ports open for business and keep cargo moving.

“Closing the ports at this point would be reckless and irresponsible,” ILWU President Robert McEllrath said in a statement.

ILWU spokesman Craig Merrilees said it’s important both parties remain at the table and stay focused on getting a contract resolved, adding that negotiators are actually “very close” to a resolution.

“We’ve dropped almost all of our remaining issues to help get this settled, and the few issues that remain can be easily resolved,” McEllrath said.

Since May, the union and employers have been involved in talks over a new contract covering 20,000 dockworkers along West Coast ports, including the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, considered the nation’s busiest seaport complex, which handles 40 percent of U.S. imports. The last contract expired in July.

At the annual Trans-Pacific Maritime Conference in Long Beach last March, McKenna was optimistic that employers and union leaders would reach a new contract by the end of July without disruption to business.

Although both sides reached a tentative agreement on health benefits and on the issue of maintaining and repairing chassis, the trailers needed to tow cargo containers, talks hit a snag last fall when the two sides began blaming each other for slowdowns at the ports.

Last month, both sides agreed to the intervention of a federal mediator in their talks.

The intensity of the talks have added to bottlenecks created by the arrival of bigger ships carrying more cargo, the uneven distribution of chassis and a shortage of rail cars. This has resulted in ships stranded at sea, long truck lines at terminals and weekslong shipment delays, forcing customers to pay the extra cost of shipping by air or reroute goods to other ports.

The Port of Los Angeles has been facing extraordinary congestion with the number of ships at berth or at anchor exceeding normal operations, said port spokesman Phillip Sanfield. He added that ships are being diverted to Canada, the East Coast and through the Suez Canal.

“It’s a serious situation that we are facing,” he said.

Los Angeles and Long Beach port officials have been pushing for a contract resolution so that stakeholders can clear the growing backlog of cargo.

“Business has already moved to other ports due to the congestion,” said Port of Long Beach Chief Executive Jon Slangerup. “It’s critical that we stop the hemorrhaging. This region simply can’t afford to lose jobs because of cargo heading elsewhere.”

Contact Karen Robes Meeks at 562-714-2088.