The Homeless Count: An Inside Look p. 2
Local Rapper Reveals He’s Gay with AntiHate Mix Tape: F.A.G. p.11 Sonny’s Bistro: A Hidden Valentine’s Day Gem p. 12
Shipping Companies Are the No. 1 Cause, Trucking Companies No. 2 By Paul Rosenberg, Senior Editor
related, with the first two directly attributable to shipping companies. Vineyard cited “Bigger Ships & Alliances,” as the top factor: As the international shipping industry has trended toward bigger and bigger ships—yes, you can say it, megaships—carrier alliances have formed to fill those ships. Because of alliances loading bigger ships with larger and larger quantities of cargo, unloading cargo ships quickly and efficiently has become more of a challenge for the longshoremen working on the docks.
By Terelle Jerricks, Managing Editor
The Local Publication You Actually Read
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And not just for longshoremen, of course, but for the entire system spreading out around them. He quotes Peter Leach, writing for the Journal of Commerce: As carriers deploy ever-larger ships, the sheer volume of containers aboard those vessels is starting to overwhelm major gateway ports, challenging their ability to unload import containers on a timely basis. The delays are exacerbated by the alliances carriers are joining to operate and fill the mega-ships. As for those alliances, Vineyard has had some fun writing about this trend as if it were a post-season playoff bracket: The Carrier Craziness Bracket is all about shipping lines forming alliances (or even merging), a trend that began
The Pacific Maritime Association announced Jan. 26 that there was a tentative agreement on the issue of chassis—a key sticking point of the contract negotiations latest impasse. “We are hopeful that this will allow us to move toward conclusion of an agreement in the near term,” said PMA spokesman Wade Gates, at the time. There’s only been silence since then. At least not until Feb. 4, when the PMA released a statement announcing that they “made an “all-in” contract offer that would significantly increase compensation to members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.” ILWU president, Robert McEllrath, in a released statement noted that this is the second time in recent memory that the employers have threatened to close the ports at the final stages of negotiations. “We’ve dropped almost all of our remaining issues to help get this settled—and the few issues that remain can be easily resolved.”
Corporate Roots of Port Congestion/ to p. 6
No Contract Details/ to p. 6
February 5 - 18, 2015
ort congestion has been a dominant fact of life overhanging the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach throughout the prolonged contract negotiations between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association. But it has also been a dominant fact of life overhanging the heroic efforts of port truckers this past year just trying to gain recognition as workers with the basic right to organize. One of the most basic facts that you need to know about port congestion is that shipping companies are the primary cause of it—although trucking companies fighting against the ports’ clean trucks programs have also played a significant role. This is not a particularly political analysis, it’s what industry insiders and analysts have been saying at least since early this past year. For example, in late September, Jared Vineyard, who blogs for Universal Cargo Management, wrote a post identifying “5 Factors Causing Congestion” at Southern California’s ports. No. 5 was the fire at the Port of Los Angeles, a headline-grabber at the time, but thankfully was little more than a blip in the grand scheme of things. No. 4 was a strong peak in seasonal shipping, the first to match pre-recession volumes. But it was not something that should have caused major problems, given the years of port development spending since then. The top three factors Vineyard cited were all industry-
There’s Agreement on Chassis, But No Details
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