Ilwu-Lb/la Port Strike of 2014-2015

ILWU-LB/LA Port Strike of 2014-2015

The ILWU, International Longshore and Warehouse Union, is a labor union that primarily represents dock workers on the West Coast of the United States. The PMA, Pacific Maritime Association, is a non-profit organization that represents employers of the shipping industry along the Pacific coast. “The ILWU represent approximately 20,000 dockworkers and the PMA represents employers at 29 ports.” (Meeks, The Long Beach Press Telegram) These two parties are arguing over causes of the “slowdowns” of ports and arbitration.

The major beef between these two parties is the lack of port chassis and dispatch or hiring of experienced/skilled workers. Both the ILWU and the PMA “reached a tentative agreement on a key component of the stalled labor talks that threaten to cripple cargo movement at the port of Los Angeles and Long Beach.” (Meeks, Long Beach Press Telegram) In other words, larger ships began arriving, freighting larger cargos into ports that are already experiencing congestion due to lack of chassis and qualified chassis operators. The PMA accuses the ILWU for not hiring and using enough “skilled” crane/ chassis operators to transfer containers off the ships to terminal yards. This in turn, forced employers to temporarily stop overnight unloading shifts to clear out the terminal yards. As a counter argument, the ILWU accuses employers for refusing to hire skilled workers to help relieve congestion. Desperate for solutions, “the port of Los Angeles brought together three major chassis providers and a terminal operator, all of whom have many chassis with more than 95,000 and persuaded them to create a pool system and share them. Meanwhile, the Port of Long Beach is creating its own fleet of chassis.” (Meeks, Long Beach Press Telegram) This is one of the first steps to alleviate the congestion of ports along the Pacific coast. The next step to follow would be to train or hire more skilled workers to make sure the ports are operating efficiently. These steps are now leading to the automation of ports to help shippers regain their certainty and reliability.

As a second part of a resolution through arbitration the ILWU used illegal tactics to slow down work flow, asked for wage increases, and the removal of arbitrators who vote against them to completely control the ports. “Currently and arbitrator can only be fired upon the agreement of both parties.” (Morris, Long Beach Post) The PMA is arguing that the agreement on the current arbitration system is a crucial check-and-balance system and any change is reckless at the discretion of what the Union desires at any given moment. If the demands that the ILWU were not met they would slow down their operations or completely shut down the port for the night. The ILWU negotiated “a wage increase of 3.1% per year increasing their workers’ pay from a base rate of $42.18 an hour to$46.23 over the agreed period.” (Kitroeff, Los Angeles Times) The PMA really had no choice but to meet the demands of the ILWU to resume work in the ports. I don’t believe that the results are fair because they highly favor the ILWU as they received almost everything that they asked for except for the removal of arbitrators that voted against them.

The top 3 major U.S. ports for overseas import shipments from other countries to the U.S. include “first Los Angeles, second Long Beach, and third New York & New Jersey.” (Icontainers.com ) All three of the major U.S. ports effectively use TEUs. TEU simply stands for a twenty-foot equivalent unit. TEUs created a more reasonable way to measure a ship’s cargo carrying capacity. One TEU can fit approximately 9-11 pallets. The Port of Los Angeles “occupies 7,500 acres of land and with a 43-mile long waterfront, and handles 4.4 million TEUs in 2015.” (Icontainers.com) With its strategic location the Port of Los Angeles occupies 13.5% of the market, followed by the Port of Long Beach which occupies 12.1% of the market, and then followed by the port of New York who comes in at 11%. The top three ports occupy 36.6% of the import market. All of which prioritize the use of TEUs to increase efficiency.

The top 3 ports worldwide are listed as first Shanghai, second Singapore, and third Shenzen. Volume measured in million TEU “Shanghai