Companies that rely on America-to-Asia transit find themselves without options.
BY JACOB PALMER | OB DIGITAL NEWS EDITOR
Companies that rely on America-to-Asia transit find themselves without options after Hanjin announced it would no longer be providing service to Portland.
OregonLive.com’s Anna Marum reported on the travails facing business owners, like Ergo Depot’s David Kahl.
“It’s unfortunate because we made a big bet on Portland when we moved our distribution center here,” he said. Hanjin’s departure, prompted by ongoing friction between the longshore workers’ union and the company that manages the Port of Portland’s Terminal 6, “puts us at a measurable disadvantage,” Kahl said.
Ergo Depot only brings in about four containers a month, but it can’t operate without them. And right now, that problem extends beyond Hanjin and Portland. Ergo Depot has been on backorder status for about three weeks now, as strikes, lockouts and alleged slowdown tactics have clogged ports up and down the West Coast amid a broad contract dispute.
The Oregonian Editorial Board argued that ending the labor strife, which led to Hanjin leaving Portland, needs to be the port’s first priority.
Finding a replacement for Hanjin will not be easy. Shipping profit margins are thin; labor relations are even more tense than usual; and the industry’s embrace of larger ships works against an inland port like Portland. But achieving labor peace is the essential first step to creating an environment that Hanjin or any potential replacement would want to enter. And before the Port can address its specific issues, the ILWU must agree to a new contract with the Pacific Maritime Association, which represents employers at West Coast ports. Employers represented by the PMA shut down some operations last weekend and are taking similar action this weekend. The PMA says the shutdowns are in response to diminished union productivity, a charge the union refutes.
The diminished productivity and shutdowns, regardless of whom you blame, could knock the slowly improving economy off balance. Affected Ports handle almost half of U.S. maritime trade. The National Retail Federation and National Association of Manufacturers have estimated that shutdowns could drain billions of dollars from the U.S. economy, depending on longevity. As high as the stakes are and in the absence of federal intervention, the PMA has little choice but to use shutdowns or a full-scale lockout to ratchet up the pressure on the union, whose members see their pay decline when Ports close. The alternative is to see the economy bleed slowly from the cost of slowdowns.
(SOURCE: OregonLive.com)
The Associated Press reports that President Barack Obama has tapped Labor Secretary Tom Perez to meet with both sides of the labor negotiations with hopes of finding resolution.
In a statement released Saturday, Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., said he was encouraged by the administration’s stepped up response to the dispute, which “has already crippled the West Coast’s export economy and had a devastating impact” on central Washington.
“I strongly urge both parties to remain at the negotiating table until a resolution is quickly reached to end the prospect of an even more damaging long-term port shutdown,” he said.
