Posts Tagged “ILWU”
If you haul imported produce at ports ranging from Washington state to Long Beach on the West Coast, your chances of claims are increasing as delays in getting product out of the ports are increasing, due to a labor dispute.
Imported perishables coming through West Coast ports have been delayed two to three day late on average.
This is resulting in a domino effect through distribution procedures and with timely deliveries. These delays effect overall shelf life of the imported fruit and in the end trickles down to less time for consumers to eat the product.
The Pacific Maritime Association said recently a slowdown by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) in Seattle and Tacoma, Wash., had spread to Los Angeles and Long Beach. The two California ports handle about 64 percent of containerized cargo on the West Coast. The union has denied a slowdown is taking place in either state, blaming the problems on a business model that interferes with on-time delivery of chassis systems.
Congestion has been occurring since at least last September in Los Angeles and Long Beach, where management lays blame on a variety of causes including a shortage of chassis, rail cars, surging cargo volume and a shortage of truck drivers. Labor strife will aggravate that, they said.
“Although the existing congestion has had ripple effects throughout the supply chain, it is the ILWU slowdowns that now have the potential to bring the port complex to the brink of gridlock,” Pacific Maritime Association spokesman Wade Gates said in a news release.
In Seattle and Tacoma terminals that typically move 25 to 35 containers hourly, were moving just 10 to 18, according to the Pacific Maritime Association.
The two sides have been in negotiations since July 1, when the last contract expired.