Posts tagged Port of Long Beach
Potential dock worker union strike causes families to shop in bulk on Oahu
June 9, 2023 // Long ongoing contract negotiations failed again for dockworkers on the California coastline. This has caused many of them to stop going to work and slowing down operations. There is a trickle-down effect because Hawaii relies on goods being shipped in. And now, many Hawaii residents are flooding local Costco stores to bulk up. “My friend texted me about a potential strike so I ran here for toilet paper. I take care of my 94-year-old mother and I need to make sure she’s fully supplied,” said Keith Lee, Makiki resident.
Labor dispute snarls West Coast ports; White House urged to step in
June 7, 2023 // The maritime association contends members of a dockworkers union have engaged in “concerted and disruptive work actions” for several days. “Union leaders are implementing many familiar disruption tactics from their job action playbook, including refusing to dispatch workers to marine terminals, slowing operations, and making unfounded health and safety claims,” according to a statement the association posted late Monday on Twitter. When asked for comment Tuesday, union officials referred to a statement released Friday by ILWU President Willie Adams. He pointed to “historic” profits made by port operators, which the union estimated topped $510 billion during the pandemic.
Ports of LA, Long Beach return to normal operations amid ongoing labor dispute
June 6, 2023 // "We aren't going to settle for an economic package that doesn't recognize the heroic efforts and personal sacrifices of the ILWU workforce that lifted the shipping industry to record profits,'' Adams said. Similarly, the ports effectively shut down for two days in April because of work shortages. But the union claimed it was the result of workers taking time off for religious holidays and for attending a union meeting.
Top U.S. shipping gateway mostly closes due to port worker shortage – employer group
April 10, 2023 // A substantial number of ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach workers, including operators needed to load and unload cargo, failed to show up on the job starting Thursday evening, according to the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), which represents employers. The PMA said the missing workers were a result of a coordinated action by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) to withhold labor as contract talks drag on. "The action by the union has effectively shut down the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach," the PMA said in a statement. Instead, the ILWU said the slowdown was due to thousands of union workers attending a monthly membership meeting on Thursday evening and observing the Good Friday holiday the following day.
White House Urged to Intervene in West Coast Port Labor Talks
March 28, 2023 // A group of more than two hundred importers, exporters, logistics providers, and retailers urged the White House to intervene in West Coast port labor talks that have been underway since last May. In a letter March 24 to President Joe Biden, groups including the National Retail Federation, the American Trucking Associations, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, urged the administration to help speed the agreement on a new labor contract between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association, after the contract governing dockworkers from California to Washington State expired on July 1. “While we appreciate that the parties agreed not to engage in a strike or a lockout, we are aware of several instances of activities that have impacted terminal operations. We need the administration to ensure these activities do not continue or escalate,” the March 24 letter said.
The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe; The Ballad of Tom Odom
January 18, 2023 // Will Swaim, journalist and president of the California Policy Center, educates us on CA Assembly Bill 5 (AB5,) which seeks to turn independent contractors into employees, and how it’s negatively affecting 70,000+ independent California truckers; truckers like Tom Odom, who calls in from the road to let us know why he is A.) part of a class action lawsuit and B.) moving to Texas. Spoiler Alert: it’s because of AB5!
Tensions rise in West Coast port labor battles, with unions and management trading accusations
September 30, 2022 // The Port of Los Angeles diverted 40,000 containers to the Port of Long Beach in August when dockworkers at the Port of LA refused to work at the automated section of APM Terminals, the largest container-handling facility citing safety concerns. APM is a part of A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S and the automation part of the terminal has been operating since 2020. Workers did not work at that facility for nearly four weeks. That diversion of containers to Long Beach, in addition to the continued re-routing of containers to the East Coast, led to the Port of New York to take the No. 1 spot in processing import and export containers in August. Port of Los Angeles fell to third.
Op-ed: Competition key to determining effects of increased unionization
September 27, 2022 // We often take it for granted that businesses would prefer to bargain individually with workers, rather than collectively through a union. A cynical explanation might be that profit-hungry corporations prioritize greed over worker welfare, but academic research offers some deeper insight. It shows that companies that are unionized experience reductions in product quality and face a higher likelihood of going out of business. Professors Omesh Kini (Georgia State University), Mo Shen (Auburn University), Jaideep Shenoy (University of Connecticut) and Venkat Subramaniam (Tulane University) find that unionized manufacturers experience a higher rate of product recalls than non-unionized companies.
Before the holiday season, workers at America’s busiest ports are fighting the robots
September 13, 2022 // The need for some kind of change is evident. The Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are consistently rated the least efficient in the world. More modern ports in the Middle East and China, where 24/7 operations are the norm, get ships in and out much faster.
Hundreds of truckers protest AB5 at Southern California’s busiest ports
July 14, 2022 // Port of Oakland truckers plan Monday demonstration against independent contractor law Some California truckers turned off their trucks, blocked terminals or staged slow rolls to snarl traffic around the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach Wednesday to express frustration over a controversial state law, AB5, that seeks to limit the use of independent contractors and largely classify them as employee drivers. Cindy Lopez, co-owner of Southern California-based Aztec Enterprises and founder of the Facebook group LA & LB Port Drivers, says she worked with countless other groups, including motor carriers, that serve the ports to stage Wednesday’s protest. Gordon Reimer, Southern California-based FHE Express,