Port truckers in Baltimore ended a weeklong job action Wednesday after voting to affiliate with the International Longshoremen’s Association.
Members of the United Container and Rail Haulers Association voted unanimously to become part of the ILA at a meeting Tuesday night that was attended by 150 people, according to Bill Dickens who founded the drivers’ group.
The significance of the action was not immediately clear since the drivers are independent owner-operators and therefore can’t be represented by a union in the traditional sense.
The Baltimore drivers’ effort to seek union affiliation marks the latest twist in a series of job actions at ports on both coasts.
Last month, drivers at Vancouver, British Columbia, staged a three-week walkout that was resolved by a contract, which converted the workers’ pay from a per-trip basis to an hourly wage that provides compensation while they wait in line at terminal gates. Drivers in Seattle and Tacoma, Wash., also stayed off the job for a week in August, but have since returned to work while talks continue against a possible resumption of their walkout on Sept. 30.
The job action that began on Sept. 1 in Baltimore slowed the flow of cargo through that port while pickets demonstrated outside the Dundalk, Seagirt and Locust Point terminals.
Dickens claimed last week that the volume through those terminals was reduced by as much as 90% from the typical 1,500 to 2,000 container shipments that are handled there.
“We are back to normal and are expecting a full day of business at the Port of Baltimore,” said Ray Feldmann, a Maryland Port Administration spokesman. He said that the nearly 1,100 shipments moved through Dundalk and Seagirt facilities on Tuesday were a significant increase over the prior week.
No ships were diverted from Baltimore during the drivers’ job action.
The next step in the unionization of the Baltimore drivers remains to be seen.
Richie Hughes, business agent of ILA Local 953, said lawyers at union headquarters will have to determine what follow-up actions are needed after Tuesday night’s meeting.
“There are a lot of questions about how they (drivers) are going to go about it (affiliation),” Hughes said. “This is in its infancy.”
There is some precedent for drivers affiliating with ILA, since port truckers in Miami are represented by that union.
The Baltimore walkout ended without any formal negotiations to address concerns or any changes to working conditions that the drivers were protesting.
Dickens said drivers want to reduce delays and congestion at marine terminals and gain insurance while they are working inside those facilities. He claimed two drivers have been injured seriously inside Baltimore marine terminals in the past year without any insurance coverage.
Maurice Byan, who chairs the Steamship Trade Association in Baltimore, said, “We are disappointed that this group of independent owner-operators chose this method (a walkout) to try to achieve what they are trying to do. We would hope he (Dickens) would work within the system and the mechanisms we have set up in this port to resolve issues regarding the movement of freight.”
Baltimore has an intermodal council composed of motor carriers, ocean carriers and third parties that has served as a forum for discussing port trucking issues.
“We have had ongoing discussions with trucking companies to resolve some of the concerns that they have,” Byan said.
“We are looking at giving them time to straighten out the situation at the piers,” Dickens said.
The Baltimore drivers have set another meeting for Saturday to decide how long they remain on the job while their unionization efforts are proceeding, Dickens said.
Dickens, who is an owner-operator in Baltimore, said that the movement to organize drivers already has spread to South Atlantic ports. He also has threatened job actions in New York-New Jersey, Philadelphia, Boston and Wilmington, Del.
“We have to go after these northern terminals to get those guys organized,” Dickens said. “Otherwise the steamship lines will play one port off against another.”
He claimed that some local truckers were offering drivers 50% more for shipments between Baltimore and Pennsylvania points in an effort to get the freight moved.
A union affiliation could prevent situations where the ocean carriers try to pit the drivers against the ILA, Dickens said.
