A working group from the Interagency Commission on Crime and Security in U.S. Seaports got an earful Tuesday when it sat down with a group of harbor-area business folks on the Queen Mary to talk about port security. The Commission – also known as the Graham Commission after Florida Sen. Bob Graham who came up with the idea – wrapped up its ten-day fact-finding visit to the of Los Angeles and Long Beach on Wednesday.
The Commission was formed by President Clinton after reports of rampant crime and corruption at ports in South Florida. However, FBI agent Brett Millar told the commission group that the situation in Southern California is even worse – at least as far as cargo theft goes. He estimated Southern California suffers about $360 million a year in stolen cargo, not counting pilfering. That’s about one-sixth of the total for the nation. Most of that robbing and stealing does not take place at the port itself, although instances of cargo being taken from port terminals by drivers with fraudulent paperwork is on the rise. One of the problems is that shippers are usually allowed five days or more to pick up their cargo. If the shipment is stolen by a phony driver the first day it arrives, it may be several days before the real driver arrives for the load and discovers that it has already been taken.
There was a lot of support among the business folks for identification cards and background checks for all port workers – similar to the system recently adopted at the Port of Miami. There are some problems, however. The ILWU is against it. The ILA – which represents Miami dockworkers – also fought the measure, but was beaten in court. The ILWU, however, is more militant and powerful than the ILA. The business folks warned the commission that any ID card or background checks involving the union would have to be implemented at the federal level, so the union would have no choice but to accept it.
Although the ILWU was not at the Queen Mary meeting, union leaders met with the Commission folks during the preceding week. Union leaders say background checks would be an unwarranted invasion of privacy that would dredge up events in a person’s past that are no longer relevant. Besides, the ILWU members are not the problem, they say.
Another catch is how to do a background check on somebody who arrived from El Salvador the week before. Requiring harbor-area truckers – many of them recent immigrants – to pass a background check could result in limiting the supply of drivers available. Most the business folks thought a card system without a background check wouldn’t work because the cards could be handed off, stolen or counterfeited. California privacy laws that restrict the release of personal information would also make background checks difficult within the state, they said.
Other suggestions involved finger and palm print ID systems and a system that would require the driver to enter a pin number specific to the load to be picked up.
Crime on the waterfront and the loss of valuable cargo is a subject near and dear to the folks who work in the industry. Among the points raised at the port security meeting:
The Graham Commission is required to report back to the President by April 2000 with recommendations for improving port security nationwide. However, an interim report will probably be released in October in a bid to shake loose some federal money from Congress for the project.
Dear Jerry;
As for loss of cargo from containers; I can recall when I used to do freight checking years ago, on the dock, every once in a while we would get a can with three or four microwaves or color TVs short. We would simply call the foreman, tell him the missing pieces, he would shrug his shoulders and it became an insurance matter.
That was before the Canadian employers and Government conspired to take the container destuffing clause away from the ILWU under the so-called Larson Report.
Fraternally,
Peter Bell Local 500
Vancouver, Canada
