ILWU, ship management continue verbal shots as mediator tries to end contract fight

Port of Oakland posts record volumes due to diversions from congested southern California ports. The presence of a federal mediator to help West Coast longshoremen and waterfront management reach a new collective bargaining agreement has not kept both sides from ratcheting up the rhetoric in their ongoing dispute, with each blaming the other for the increasing congestion plaguing the seacoast’s major ports. Operations at the five major West Coast container ports—Los Angeles, Long Beach, Oakland, Seattle, and Tacoma—are "approaching complete gridlock" due to a deliberate effort by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) to slow operations at the ports, according to a statement issued late yesterday by the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA). For instance, ILWU has withheld the services of 75 skilled yard crane drivers each day at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the nation’s busiest port complex, according to the PMA statement. Since Nov. 3, ILWU has reduced the number of yard operators there by two-thirds, PMA said. These workers are critical to clearing congested terminals and ensuring the smooth resumption of container flow, according to the statement. ILWU countered by claiming the congestion problem has been caused by an overabundance of containers and a worsening shortage of chassis equipment needed to move boxes by truck to and from vessels. Neither of those issues is the fault of the union, it said in a separate statement. The union took ship management to task for cancelling two of three night shift crews at Los Angeles and Long Beach that would normally be loading and unloading vessels. ILWU said PMA’s action will do nothing to ease the congestion crisis and accused management of trying to "gain the upper hand at the bargaining table" by casting the union as the villain in the dispute. PMA, which took […]