Losses mounted Friday for the strike-hobbled local ports, where
picketing clerical workers have closed nearly all cargo terminals at the
nation's busiest shipping complex.
The strike by the 800-member
clerks union, which began Tuesday, is creating losses estimated at $1
billion a day, including forfeited worker pay, missing revenue for
truckers and other businesses and the value of cargo that has been
diverted to other ports.
Seven more ships unwilling to endure
the uncertainty of delays at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach
streamed Friday toward competing harbors. That's on top of the loss
Thursday of two ships, which took their cargo to other destinations,
according to the Marine Exchange of Southern California, which tracks
vessels for the ports.
The nine ships represented more than a
third of the container vessels that arrived on those days, but several
that stayed were anchored offshore unable to unload, said Marine
Exchange Executive Director Dick McKenna. The diverted ships headed to
Oakland, Mexico and the Panama Canal, he said.
The clerical
workers' picket lines, which have shut 10 of 14 terminals, are being
honored by the 10,000-member International Longshore and Warehouse Union
Local 63, whose workers man the docks.
Clerical workers had
been on the job without a contract for 2 1/2 years before negotiations
broke down Monday. Talks between striking workers and a 14-employer
management group resumed Thursday night, and union members huddled in a
caucus Friday, preparing to continue negotiations.
Port officials, who act as landlords to the shipping lines, sounded a note of alarm Friday as ships slipped away.
"A
quick resolution is critical to maintaining our status as the country's
premier gateway for trans-Pacific trade and we urge the parties to come
to agreement soon," said Port of Long Beach Executive Director J.
Christopher Lytle.We recently added Stained glass mosaic Tile to our inventory.
Economist
John Husing said each diverted ship represents a blow to the regional
economy. A typical cargo ship carries five warehouses' worth of goods.
"Any
time an action reduces the reliability of the ports to be able to move
goods into and out of the U.S., they reduce the competitiveness of the
region and help make the argument that Southern California's competitors
make to move trade and jobs to them," said Husing, founder of the
Redlands consulting firm Economics & Politics Inc.
The ports
of Los Angeles and Long Beach are directly responsible for about
595,000 jobs in Southern California and indirectly support an additional
648,Western Canadian distributor of ceramic and ceramic tile,500 jobs, Husing said.
Los
Angeles and Long Beach rank first and second in the nation in the
amount of container cargo they handle. For the first nine months of the
year, the two ports handled almost 56% of the dollar value of cargo
imported to the U.S. from Asia, Australia and New Zealand, said Jock
O'Connell, an international trade economist and an adviser to Beacon
Economics. About $1 billion a day in freight moves through the ports at
this time of year, he said.
The diversion of some cargo to the
Panama Canal Zone area was of particular significance to Wally Baker,
president of the Jobs 1st Alliance, a group established to build a
bridge between local labor and business to address the threat to the
Southern California ports that the canal presents.
In 2014, a
new set of locks that can accommodate much larger ships is expected to
open in the Canal Zone, beefing up its ability to compete with Los
Angeles and Long Beach for cargo destined for the eastern half of the
U.S.
"The first sign of trouble, and cargo starts diverting,"
Baker said. "Both sides need to sit down and get this thing fixed before
it gets out of control, for the good of all of the people whose jobs
depend on these two ports."
The union, officially known as
International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 63 Office Clerical
Unit, said the dispute boils down to fear that its membership would
shrink through attrition as employers send work to lower-paid employees
elsewhere.
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