Gridlock at the Port
It seems that everyone in our industry has been affected by the problems between the Long Beach Longshoreman’s Union and the West Coast Ports. After the contract between the two parties expired at the end of June 2014, the Port’s management association accused the Longshoreman’s Union of a work slowdown – dragging their shifts out in order to receive extra pay for weekend and holiday hours. The Port wasn’t willing to pay that premium and responded by halting weekend and Monday ship operations in protest. This affected over 29 ports, stretching from Long Beach, California to Tacoma, Washington. Take a look at these photos sent by one of our shipping customers during the saga.
Bustling ports all along the West Coast were closing down, forcing ships to stand at anchor, floating aimlessly with cargo full of everything from automobiles to e-cigarettes, while retailers waited for the goods they desperately needed. Some shippers diverted their business to ports on the East Coast, Canada, or Mexico in order to avoid the hassles of going through West Coast ports during the past nine months.
Ariel View
Finally, just last week, the New York Times reported that the two sides reached an agreement with the help of the Secretary of Labor. But, it will take a few months to ratify the contract and to clear the massive backlog of cargo that’s lined up at the West Coast ports. Furthermore, there is concern that shipments diverted to the east coast during the dispute probably won’t come back. It’s a complex, sticky situation. I understand the concerns from all sides, but I can’t help but wonder: “Will the potential loss of business to other ports stop future conflicts from happening?” It reminded me of this story:
Pete the Pirate had a parrot who swore like a sailor. This parrot was such a pistol, he could swear for five minutes straight without repeating himself. Trouble was Pete was a quiet, conservative pirate, and his bird’s foul mouth was driving him crazy. One day, it got to be too much. Pete grabbed the parrot by the throat, shook him really hard, and yelled, “STOP IT ALREADY!” But this just made his parrot mad, causing him to swear more than ever.
He couldn’t think of anything else to do, so Pete threw his parrot into the freezer for a few minutes to “cool him off”. For the first few seconds, his parrot clawed and thrashed and continued to swear a blue streak. Then, suddenly, the parrot got very quiet– so quiet that Pete worried the bird may be hurt. After another minute of silence, Pete opened the freezer door. The bird calmly climbed onto Pete’s out-stretched arm and said, “Awfully sorry about the trouble I gave you, kind sir. I’ll do my best to improve my vocabulary from now on. By the way, what did the chicken do?”
Watch your mouth this weekend,
Bob
