San Pedro Bay Dockworkers Protest Labor Cutbacks

By Mark Edward Nero

Thousands of dockworkers from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and their supporters held a march and rally on Jan. 22 to protest the suspension of night shifts at the ports by the Pacific Maritime Association.

An estimated 6,000 people, led by a high school marching band, walked along Harbor Blvd. from the Vincent Thomas Bridge in San Pedro to the Maritime Museum about half a mile away around sunset. The march was organized by the office of Los Angeles City Councilman Joe Buscaino, who represents the district that includes the port.

The PMA said Jan. 12 that it would no longer assign crews to load and unload cargo ships overnight at the two ports so that they could better deal with the problem of traffic congestion that has been plaguing port terminals for several months.

The reduction in operating hours has had a negative effect on dockworkers, according to the International Longshore & Warehouse Union. More than 800 jobs have been affected, according to the ILWU.

The union blames the congestion issues on “managerial mistakes,” including a lack of dock space for containers and shortages of chassis, and says that cancelling night shifts and reducing bulk operations will do nothing to ease congestion.

On the other hand the PMA, which has been engaged in contract negotiations with the ILWU since May 2014, claims that the union has orchestrated the situation by engaging in a work slowdown.

The PMA has given no indication that it is willing to resume night shift anytime soon and neither side has indicated that contract negotiations could be wrapped up in the near future.

Study: Inland Waterways Investment Could Mean $14 Million in Jobs

By Mark Edward Nero

The National Waterways Foundation, a Washington, DC-area based research center, on Jan. 26 released a two-year study examining the waterways’ national economic return on investment and the need for and benefits of an accelerated program of waterways system improvements that sustain and create jobs.

The study, conducted by the University of Tennessee and the University of Kentucky, is titled “Inland Navigation in the United States: An Evaluation of Economic Impacts and the Potential Effects of Infrastructure Investment.”

It evaluates the inland navigation system as it is currently funded and configured, and as it might be through renewed infrastructure investment. The study begins with a basic analytical framework examining navigation’s role as a productive input in various industrial processes and reflects actual, real-world economic interactions and consequences if the system were to suddenly shut down and then if proper infrastructure investments were made.

Specifically, the study found that:

• Investment in badly needed modernization improvements to America’s inland waterways’ aging lock and dam infrastructure could lead to 350,000 job-years of new, full-time employment with a present value of more than $14 billion over the 10-year period examined in the study.
• Investment in inland waterways could sustain 541,000 jobs and over $1 billion in new job income annually.
• If 21 priority navigation projects were completed at an estimated total cost of $5.8 billion, the 20-year sum of related economic output activity would exceed $82 billion.
• New freight capacity could result in robust economic impact in the creation of some 12,000 new full-time, permanent jobs each year with annual incomes in excess of $500 million.
• If commercial shipping on US waterways ceased entirely, there would be immediate, devastating economic consequences with a total 10-year loss of $1 trillion. Also, shipping costs would increase by about $12.5 billion.
• With a loss of waterways’ shipping, an estimated 75 percent of freight would be diverted to truck and/or rail, and there would be a 25 percent loss due to decreased production.

The full 96-page study is available at: http://www.nationalwaterwaysfoundation.org/documents/INLANDNAVFINALVERSION11-4-14.pdf

NASSCO Receives $33 Million Nimitz Contract

By Mark Edward Nero

San Diego-based shipbuilding company General Dynamics NASSCO has been awarded a $33.7 million modification to a previously awarded contract for repair and alterations to the nuclear aircraft carrier USS Nimitz, the US Navy said Jan. 22.

This modification, according to the US Navy, is awarded under the existing five-year contract for non-nuclear maintenance, repair and alterations of CVN 68 and CVN 78 class ships. Exercise of the option authorizes the first major industrial availability of the contract, which entails modification and repair of equipment, hull and systems.

The USS Nimitz is scheduled to undergo an “extended planned incremental availability,” which is military terminology for an opportunity in a ship’s life cycle to conduct repairs and alterations.

The Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility in Bremerton, Washington, is the contracting activity for the work. All labor on the ship is scheduled to be performed in Bremerton, Wash. and is anticipated to be completed by June 2016, according to the Navy.

The USS Nimitz, which was commissioned in May 1975, is one of 10 supercarriers used by the Navy. It is 1,092 feet (332.8 meters) long, has a beam of 252 feet (76.8 meters) and can travel up to 31.5 knots. It has been homeported at Naval Station Everett since 2012.

LA Mayor Appoints New Port Exec

By Mark Edward Nero

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said Jan. 21 that his Deputy Mayor for City Services, Doane Liu, will become Deputy Executive Director and Chief of Staff at the Port of Los Angeles.

Liu will assume his new position on Feb. 1, but is expected to continue helping oversee the mayor’s Office of City Services until the transition to a new Deputy Mayor is complete. A search for his successor, coordinated by Mayor Garcetti’s Chief of Staff is already underway, according to the City of LA.

Liu will report directly to port Executive Director Gene Seroka. Garcetti said he was appointing Liu to the position because of the port’s economic importance to Los Angeles.

“The economy is my top priority and the Port of LA is our region's leading economic driver, so it’s critical to me that we have the right team in place to make sure it retains its number one position and grows as a powerhouse of international trade,” Garcetti explained.

Liu, who was appointed to be one of four Deputy Mayors by Mayor Garcetti in July 2013, lives in San Pedro, not far from the port. He was previously Chief of Staff for Councilman Joe Buscaino, who represents the district that includes the port, and was previously Senior Vice President of Government Banking at JP Morgan Chase and Vice President in the Real Estate Industries Group at Security Pacific National Bank.

“Doane Liu is one of L.A.’s most seasoned and innovative executives, and combined with his personal connection to the port community, I am looking forward to big things from his work there,” Garcetti said.

Puget Sound Ports Annual Container Volumes Flat

By Mark Edward Nero

Container volumes through Puget Sound’s two largest seaports were flat in 2014, according to numbers jointly released by the ports of Seattle and Tacoma Jan. 21. The joint numbers release is the first since the ports announced their plan to unify the management of their marine cargo terminals and related functions last fall.

The two ports announced in October 2014 plans to form a Seaport Alliance to unify management of marine cargo terminals and related functions. The strategy, currently in the due diligence phase, is in response to competitive threats and something the ports say will strengthen the Puget Sound gateway and create more economic opportunities.

“Reporting our combined cargo volumes demonstrates our commitment to the Seaport Alliance,” Port of Seattle Commission co-President Stephanie Bowman explained.

Puget Sound container volumes fell less than one percent in calendar year 2014 to 3.4 million TEUs, according to the ports. Tacoma and Seattle’s combined volumes have hovered near 3.5 million TEUs since 2010. Last year marked the second consecutive year of decline.

When the numbers for the ports are separated, the Port of Tacoma saw an increase in container traffic of about eight percent in 2014 compared to the previous year, while traffic through the Port of Seattle was down 11.3 percent year-to-year.

Larger vessels and shipping line alliances mean fewer vessels are calling at fewer ports, something that ports from Puget Sound to the San Pedro Bay have expressed concerns over. Together, Seattle and Tacoma comprise the third-largest container gateway in North America, but their share of the West Coast market has been falling over the past decade.

Containerized export volumes through the two ports dipped 1.6 percent in 2014 to 1.2 million TEUs, while imports fell 4.1 percent to 1.4 million TEUs. However, domestic container volumes grew 6.1 percent to 870,733 TEUs on the strength of Alaska trade.

In other 2014 cargo news: grain exports at the two ports rebounded, jumping 96.5 percent to 7.5 million metric tons following a bumper crop that helped return grain to normal volumes following 2013’s historic lows.

Also, petroleum volumes grew 26.6 percent to 997,977 metric tons and breakbulk volumes improved 1.3 percent to 253,377 metric tons on the strength of construction and heavy machinery imports.

Additionally, auto imports posted a 9.6 percent gain to 175,802 units as an improving economy and decreasing fuel prices drove new car sales, while log exports fell 28.9 percent to 276,628 metric tons, with decreasing demand in China cited as the main cause.

Longshore Workers Walk Off Job in Seattle

By Mark Edward Nero

A work dispute led to longshore workers walking off the job at a Port of Seattle terminal on Jan. 20, bringing it to a standstill, until returning a day later.

According to terminal operator SSA Marine, longshore workers at Terminal 18, one of the largest container facilities in the Pacific Northwest, walked off the job the morning of Jan. 20 after demanding that more labor be hired at Terminal 5.

SSA Marine Sr. Vice President Bob Watters told local media outlets that the workers’ request was outside the company’s jurisdiction, since the terminal is owned by the port and not operated by SSA Marine.

Terminal 5 has been shuttered since mid-2014 for renovations so that it may accommodate larger ships. As part of the plan, Eagle Marine Services, which operates Terminal 5, has temporarily relocated its cargo and breakbulk activities to Terminal 18. The port has said however, that it is looking to attract “interim uses” for the industrial facility.

Watters said that the reason Terminal 18 was closed for nearly a full day on Jan. 20 was that SSA Marine, when told that longshore workers would walk off the job for half a day, told the employees that if they left during the morning shift, they shouldn’t come back in the afternoon.

“Workers said to us ‘if you don’t hire more people for Terminal 5 we’ll walk off and might be back at noon,” he explained. “We said, ‘if you’re going to walk off, don’t bother coming back until tomorrow’.”

ILWU Local 19 has not responded to requests to comment on the walkout.

Nichols Bros. Building Landing Craft for American Samoa

By Mark Edward Nero

Freeland, Wash.-based Nichols Brothers Boat Builders has selected Elliott Bay Design Group of Seattle to provide the design and production engineering for the construction of a new freight and passenger vessel for American Samoa, an unincorporated territory in the southeast Pacific Ocean.

The proposed vessel, which is a 140-foot landing craft, is designed with a beam of 38 feet, depth of 13 feet, and to accommodate up to eight crewmembers overnight. The boat will be one of a small number available to transport local residents between the five Samoan islands. Until recently, most of those vessels served the immediate community, but the new landing craft, which will be able to carry a total of 149 passengers, will also be available for tourists.

This is not the first collaboration between the two Washington companies. Last year, Nichols Brothers Boat Builders contracted EBDG to complete the production engineering for the 150-foot-long landing craft, which the yard delivered late last year. The vessel is operated by Bowhead Transport in Alaska.

“We are very happy to be working with EBDG again on another landing craft project,” Nichols Brothers CEO Gavin Higgins said.

“We’re excited about this new project and to be working with (Nichols Brothers) once again,” Mike Complita, EBDG’s Vice President of Shipyard Services said. “We look forward to making this job a successful one.”