US west coast ports due to resume operations Tuesday

WASHINGTON (ICIS)–US west coast ports were to resume operations on Tuesday after a four-day shutdown, a spokesman for port owners and operators said, but longstanding delays in cargo handling in the 29 ports are likely to continue as contract talks remain stalled.

Wade Gates, spokesman for the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), representing port owners and operators, said on Tuesday that operations would resume at the ports as the owners had promised last week.

The PMA said it was closing the ports for Friday through Monday rather than pay hourly wages increases of as much as 50% over the four-day holiday weekend during a time when PMA says union workers have slowed operations to a crawl.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) has repeatedly denied conducting a work slowdown, saying the backlog in handling incoming and outgoing cargoes is the fault of management.

The longshoremen allege “a massive, employer-caused congestion crisis that has delayed shipping”.

The two sides have been in protracted contract renewal talks since May 2014 but without apparent progress.

This was the second weekend-long shutdown at the ports.

The PMA says that periodic port shutdowns are inevitable because the mounting backlog of containers and cargoes means that operations at the ports are becoming cost prohibitive, and that owners prefer a shutdown rather than continuing to pay for work that is not getting done.

Because last Friday and Monday commemorated the birthdays of presidents George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, they are counted as holidays under existing contract rules and, along with normal Saturday and Sunday overtime, require a 50% holiday wage increase for most dock workers and warehouse staff.

The long-running contract dispute and operations slow-downs at the ports already are causing disruptions in the shipment of chemicals, plastics and a broad variety of other US goods bound for Asia.

A contract-related work stoppage involving the 29 ports in 2002 delayed chemicals and resins shipments not only on the west coast but throughout the US west because of the knock-on impact on related freight rail traffic in the region.

That 10-day shutdown triggered business losses estimated at $1bn daily.

Even after the 2002 ports shutdown ended, the backlog of export and import shipping and internal US freight took weeks to resolve.

Late last year chemicals sector officials joined 100 other industry groups in urging the White House to intercede in the negotiations, warning that the costs of a new ports shutdown would be nearly $2bn/day.

Federal mediators are taking part in the talks.

Paul Hodges studies key influencers shaping the chemical industry in Chemicals and the Economy