Chaos on the docks: PMA harasses ILWU rather than solve logistical nightmare

Oct. 11, 2002

Pent-up demand caused by PMA’s nearly two-week lockout of the ILWU is producing infrastructure meltdown on West Coast docks—but instead of trying to resolve the problems it caused, PMA is blaming the union.

Trains that carry containers to their inland destinations were moved away from the Coast during the lockout because there was no work for them, and they haven’t returned in any significant numbers. Shortages of chassis are making it difficult if not impossible for trucks to move containers out. ILWU members are unloading the containers from the ships, but because of these train and truck problems they cannot be moved out of the ports.

The resulting backup of containers is aggravating the congestion and making the docks even more dangerous than usual.

While PMA officials stand on the docks with clipboards in an attempt to document alleged slowdowns by ILWU workers, the chaos at the ports continues.

“PMA is more focused on using Taft-Hartley to harass us than solving the logistical disaster they created,” said ILWU International President James Spinosa. “The congestion on the docks is reducing productivity as well as safety. But these employers are only concerned with numbers of containers moved and not the human toll of their production.” The congestion has already led to accidents, and major ports are experiencing acute shortages of equipment and manpower.

• Congestion at the biggest terminal in the world, the new Maersk facility in the Port of Los Angeles, resulted in two accidents today. An outside trucker hit an ILWU-driven truck and when the union Business Agent came to the scene to investigate, his truck was hit by another outside trucker. Some terminals are so congested they have stopped receiving incoming trucks.
• In Seattle, the rail yard has limited the number of containers loaded onto trains to 100 per day for the entire port. In Oakland the rail yard is limiting each terminal to only 30 containers per day when each ship has hundreds scheduled for trains.
• Terminals up and down the Coast are experiencing shortages of chassis, making it impossible for trucks to pick up their loads. Some terminals have stopped receiving new containers because they are too congested. Booking numbers are not adequate to easily get containers out to truckers, making them stand by for hours and adding to terminal congestion. In Portland truckers are being hit with additional demurrage fees for keeping their containers stored on the docks beyond their free pickup date, even though the PMA’s lockout kept them from retrieving their loads on time.
• Other equipment shortages and malfunctions are slowing work as well. In Portland a lack of enough trucks, top loaders and radios is causing workers to stand by for hours, reducing productivity. In Los Angeles/Long Beach scales, cameras and computers are breaking down, causing further delays.
• PMA’s lockout created a backlog of ships to the point where every terminal needs a full complement of workers on every shift. So the employers are ordering more workers than there are and then they claim the union is withholding labor. But the union has been asking PMA to hire more people for years. PMA has delayed those requests because the more union workers there are, the stronger the union is. This policy is now coming back to haunt the employers, but instead of resolving the matter, they blame the union.

The backlogs and snafus continue to escalate, extending all estimates of how long the port congestion will last. As PMA Spokesperson John Pachtner told the Oakland Tribune Oct. 10, 2002 “Simply put, it’s more complicated to fix something than to break it.” And he should know since it was PMA who broke it.

            “PMA is saying that we are causing slowdowns because productivity is down by 20 to 25 percent,” Spinosa said. “I think we must be doing pretty good if that’s all we’re down given the disaster the employers’ lockout created.”

For more information call ILWU Communications Director Steve Stallone at 415-775-0533 ext. 114 (office) or 510-390-4748 (cell) or see www.ilwu.org.

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