PMA says shipside operations suspended Monday in LA/Long Beach Workers will try to clear backlog from terminals. BY CHRIS DUPIN |MONDAY, JANUARY 19, 2015 The Pacific Maritime Association said it is suspending dayside vessel loading and unloading operations at the Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach on Monday to continue to focus efforts on clearing containers backed up at terminals experiencing severe capacity issues on congested yards due to the ILWU’s ongoing slowdowns. Dayside vessel operations will resume on Tuesday. Last Tuesday terminals in the two Southern California ports suspended night-side vessel loading and unloading at the twin ports. The terminals had already reduced the number of ILWU gangs working ships from three to one in an effort to slow the flow of containers into already congested container terminals. PMA spokesman Wade Gates said Since Nov. 3, in a coordinated and unilateral action to apply pressure to labor negotiations, Local 13 (the International Longshore and Warehouse Union local in the two ports) has reduced by two-thirds the dispatch of skilled workers qualified to drive yard cranes, aggravating congestion and leading to near gridlock conditions at many terminals. Yard cranes are essential in moving containers that have already been unloaded from ships onto trucks and trains for loading and transport to their final destinations. Gates said PMA hopes Monday’s action will continue to help chip away at the backlog of stranded containers posed by 10 weeks of ILWU slowdowns, speed cargo available for transport to customers, and make room on terminal yards for cargo awaiting to be unloaded from ships at berth. Congestion in the terminals has resulted in the number of containerships at anchor outside the two ports growing dramatically over the past month. Normally containerships go directly to berth, but for most of the past week there have been more than 10 containerships at anchor.
Posted on: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 20:47:06 +0000
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