Reid / ETC International Freight System
International Shipping, Maritime, Air, Overseas Shipping
Commentaries:
The Long Beach Strike is over the children got their candies. As they were holding hostage our County, we lost about a Billion a day. A clerical position earning over $150000, vacation paid & health care provided. Can Congress break through the abuses, it would never happen & before we change our Congress first, the other spoiled children.
JOC is reporting the story
LA-Long Beach Strike Ends With Six-Year Contract
Bill Mongelluzzo, Associate Editor | Dec 05, 2012 10:41AM EST
LOS ANGELES — With the help of two federal mediators, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced an end to the eight-day strike by clerical workers that shut down 10 of the 14 container terminals in Los Angeles-Long Beach.
Villaraigosa late Tuesday announced the end of the strike by some 600 members of the Office Clerical Unit of International Longshore and Warehouse Unit Local 63. He said cargo handling at the two ports would resume Wednesday morning.
Details of the agreement are sketchy pending a vote of the membership, but the contract will expire on June 30, 2016. That makes it a six-year contract as it is retroactive to June 30, 2010, when the previous pact expired.
Complete coverage of West Coast labor disputes
Stephen Berry, the lawyer who negotiated on behalf of the 14 waterfront employers, confirmed that there will be no outsourcing of OCU jobs, and workers would receive increased pay and benefits. Previous reports indicated the total annual package of wages and benefits would reach $190,000 per worker over the life of the agreement.
Although it appears the contract includes guarantees of no layoffs and other job security provisions sought by the OCU, there is no immediate information on the key demand of employers. They had insisted that employers should not have to fill jobs when OCU members are absent, if there is no work to be done, and that they should not have to fill positions when OCU members retire, if the work is not needed.
With cargo-handling under way at the ports, the need for continued diversion of vessels is over, but it could take weeks for the ports to return to normal.
Terminal Operators, Carriers Begin Clearing Strike-Related Backlogs
Bill Mongelluzzo, Associate Editor | Dec 05, 2012 3:31PM EST
Terminal operators and shipping lines in Los Angeles-Long Beach have begun the task of digging out from the eight-day strike by office clerical workers, but the task may not be as daunting as it was after previous work stoppages — at least not this week.
The consensus among port and terminal operators is that the next two weeks will be quite busy in Southern California, but the ports should dodge the gridlock bullet that could have resulted if the Office Clerical Unit of International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 63 had remained on strike longer.
Alan McCorkle, managing director of the giant Pier 400 APM terminal in Los Angeles, said Wednesday he hopes to be back to normal in 24 to 48 hours. McCorkle said the diversion of vessels from Southern California to Oakland and Mexico relieved some of the pressure on the ports.
It appears that the containers that were dropped off at the ports of Ensenada and Manzanillo when vessels were diverted to the Mexican ports the past week did not move overland into the U.S. Rather, the containers are still there for carriers to pick them up and return them to Southern California on subsequent voyages.
Ed Zaninelli, vice president of trans-Pacific westbound at OOCL, said vessels that were at berth when the strike began last week will be turned in the next two days. Carriers must reload the ships immediately with exports as well as empty containers that are on hand at the docks. The empties will be needed for the upcoming pre-Chinese New Year rush in the trans-Pacific. “You can’t book to ships that are at dock,” he said.
Two factors were at work that relieved some of the pressure at the ports, said Chris Lytle, executive director at the Port of Long Beach. The peak-shipping season in the eastbound Pacific was over in November, and imports were already beginning to trend lower, Lytle said.
Also, the terminals have been fluid all year, rather than at capacity as they were in 2002 and 2004 when the ports were humming, so the operators should be able to handle the bump in cargo that will occur in the coming weeks. “It will be busy, but clearly not gridlock,” Lytle said.
The Total Terminals International facility where Hanjin Shipping Co. and other carriers call will be especially busy, said Frank Capo, senior vice president and chief commercial officer. TTI will handle ships under three different scenarios — those that were at berth when the strike occurred, those that were diverted to Oakland to drop off Northern California cargo and are now headed back to Long Beach and the normal rotation of vessels due this coming weekend.
