LONG BEACH, Calif. – With the peak shipping season approaching, International Longshore and Warehouse Union locals in Southern California have proposed an innovative plan to relieve congestion at the nation’s largest port complex.
Even more significantly, the new leadership of ILWU locals 13 and 63 said their plan signals the start of a long-term effort by waterfront labor to improve the union’s image and make the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach more efficient.
“It’s a different union now,” said Peter Peyton, vice president of Local 63, representing marine clerks. “We’re people who are educated.”
“We not only have a responsibility to our industry, but to our country,” said Mike Mitre, president of Local 13, the ILWU’s largest local. “We represent the two largest ports. These ports feed America.”
Employers are cautiously optimistic about the new leaders, but wonder if they can control the most aggressive locals in an organization that is proud of its reputation for militance. Mitre and Peyton assumed their positions in the ILWU locals last month.
“Since then we haven’t had a work stoppage. That’s a good sign,” said Charles Wallace, vice president in Southern California for the Pacific Maritime Association, which represents shipping lines and terminal operators.
In an interview, Mitre and Peyton said one of their first official acts will be to present to Southern California employers an ILWU proposal to establish secured off-dock yards for the storage of containers moving to and from marine terminals.
Los Angeles-Long Beach this year will handle more than 9 million TEUs, including more than 5.5 million loaded containers, with 70% of that volume moving in the summer-fall peak shipping season.
Peak seasons are always marked by congestion and long truck lines at terminals. The primary reason is that containers sit at terminals too long, Mitre said. Containers are removed from vessels and stacked three or four rows high until drivers arrive to retrieve them.
A box can be moved four or five times before it’s removed from a terminal.
Under the ILWU locals’ plan, hundreds of containers would be placed immediately on chassis and pulled by ILWU truck drivers through an expedited gate to a designated off-dock facility. By working around the clock and using the expedited gates, the drivers could haul four or five boxes per shift – enough productivity to justify their base wage of $26.68 an hour, Mitre said.
Most terminal operators refuse to run late-night gates because the traffic doesn’t justify the cost. Trucking companies don’t patronize late gates because most of their customers’ warehouses are open only during daytime hours. Truckers don’t want the liability of holding overnight a container that may contain $1 million worth of merchandise.
The ILWU plan calls for shipping lines and terminal operators, with the support of the port authorities and local cities, to establish off-dock sites that are fenced and policed by security guards 24 hours a day. This would allow marine terminals, which handle as many as 3,000 gate moves a day, to spread the work throughout the day.
The trade-off for the ILWU would be new jobs. The PMA agreed last year to establish a training program to prepare longshoremen for Class One drivers licenses, so the mechanism for the off-dock plan is already in place, Mitre noted.
The contract also gives ILWU locals and PMA sub-steering committees the latitude to negotiate local deals. “LA-Long Beach is unique. We have to do this ourselves,” Peyton said.
The ILWU proposal is generating interest, and skepticism. “Conceptually, it’s doable,” said Don Wylie, managing director of maritime services at the Port of Long Beach. Wylie noted that in past peak seasons, some terminal operators set up satellite yards to handle overflow traffic.
The PMA’s Wallace said the employers organization is willing to use the proposal as a starting point for discussions. However, the work force in Southern California is already stretched so thin that employers are struggling to get enough labor just to handle vessel loading and unloading, he said.
Terminal operators can and do set up off-dock yards when the need arises, said Arthur J. Merrick, chief operating officer at Long Beach Container Terminal.
However, they contract with trucking companies for harbor drayage in order to avoid the expense involved in purchasing trucks, hiring drivers and paying for insurance, he said.
A new harbor tractor costs about $75,000, and a terminal operator would need at least 20 trucks to maintain a drayage operation. If the trucks are used only during the peak season, the capital expense could be prohibitive, trucking executives added.
“It’s an interesting model,” said Patty Senecal, vice president of sales at Transport Express, “but where are they going to find the land? Can they put this all together by the peak season? Can they get their over-the-road licenses in time? Will the yards be equipped for M&R (maintenance and repair)?”
Mitre and Peyton see the union’s proposal as a pilot project for the peak season. “If this works, it would establish a model for the future,” Mitre said. It would also demonstrate to U. S. importers and exporters that the ILWU is serious about productivity.
In that respect, Mitre and Peyton disagree with comments last week by ILWU President Brian McWilliams, who said the union will continue its work stoppages over international social issues. “This is our legacy. This is our ongoing history,” McWilliams said in a speech.
Mitre and Peyton said the Southern California locals won’t forget the legacy of the ILWU’s founders, but they recognize the importance of just-in-time transportation in international trade. “Commerce has changed. We have a responsibility to that cargo,” Mitre said.
The Southern California labor leaders even agreed, to a point, with PMA President Joseph Miniace, who recently urged the union to revive the spirit of the 1960 Mechanization and Modernization Agreement. The M&M agreement allowed containerization to flourish on the West Coast.
“Can we get there again? Yes we can,” Peyton said. “But it’s a trust issue.”
