U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh promoted the Biden Administration’s response to port congestion while saying it was too early to weigh in on upcoming negotiations between dockworkers and the Pacific Maritime Association.
Walsh on Tuesday, Nov. 30, was the latest in a parade of public officials to visit the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach as congestion and supply chain disruptions have become global issues.
Also visiting the ports recently have been U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, Gov. Gavin Newsom and White House Port Envoy John Porcari.
Walsh, who also stressed the importance of American jobs at the ports, was joined by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia, U.S. Rep. Nanette Barragan, D-San Pedro, and the executive directors of the ports, LA’s Gene Seroka and Long Beach’s Mario Cordero. They spoke on the dock of the San Pedro Downtown Harbor as ships passed by in the Main Channel behind them.
It was Walsh’s first visit to the country’s two busiest ports — which bring in about 40% of the nation’s goods — as labor secretary. But it was his third stop to a U.S. seaport in about a month. He visited the Port of Philadelphia on Oct. 28 and the Port of Charleston on Nov. 3
On Tuesday, he focused on the issue of congestion at the twin ports, though he did discuss the upcoming labor talks.
Walsh, a former mayor of Boston and a past union president, said he trusts the negotiation process and would be available if an impasse occurs or if asked to “step in.”
“I don’t think we’re at that point,” he said.
Until then, Walsh added, “we don’t have a role” in the upcoming talks.
Walsh, 54, had served as the Democratic mayor of Boston since 2014 before joining the Biden Administration. He also was a state representative and came to his federal position with a long history with labor, serving as president of Laborers Local 223 and heading up the Boston Building Trades, a union umbrella organization. He was appointed labor secretary by President Joe Biden in January.
The contract between the PMA, which represents ocean carriers and terminal operators, and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, expires on July 1.
With the ongoing pandemic and port congestion issues yet to be resolved, PMA President and CEO James McKenna had asked the union to consider agreeing to a one-year extension to the current collective bargaining agreement.
Union leaders have preliminarily rejected the offer, but Ramon Ponce De Leon, president of ILWU’s Local 13, who joined Walsh on the boat tour, said after the secretary’s appearance that those matters will ultimately be up to the union caucus and negotiating team, which don’t meet until early next year.
“Given our bargaining history over the past 20 years,” McKenna wrote in a Nov. 16 letter to ILWU International President Willie Adams, “there is already a perception among the trade community that negotiations are likely to result in some kind of disruption.”
The potential to further disrupt the “already fragile” supply chain, McKenna said, should be avoided in the interest of moving into a more stable economic recovery. The extension would keep the current contract — already extended twice previously — in place until July 1, 2023.
The current contract was signed in 2015 and next year’s talks are expected to be tense, with terminal automation topping the list of issues.
Past negotiations have seen work slowdowns, isolated job actions and, in 2002, a lockout by employers, which put workers outside the ports for 10 days, leading to picket lines, demonstrations and backed-up ships throughout San Pedro Bay.
The last time the ILWU went on strike was in 1971.
Most of the comments during Walsh’s visit centered on praising White House efforts to assist in breaking the logjam of ships that grew out of the pandemic, as consumers turned to online shopping for home improvement and other merchandise in lieu of spending money on entertainment and dinners out.
The White House’s efforts, he said, focus on shoring up the supply chain over both the short- and long-term.
“This administration’s commitment to ports and supply chains goes far beyond the holidays,” Walsh said. “Standing with local officials, unions, employers, and port leadership today, we are focused not only on solving immediate issues—we are also building strategies for long-term resilience.”
Garcetti said the cause was due to “private sector inefficiencies” and that the surge isn’t slowing down yet, with cargo numbers up by 22% during this calendar year.
The combined ports are expected to move 20 million containers in 2021.
Efforts by the ports to move old cargo off the docks appear to be paying off, however. Aging cargo — preventing waiting ships from being processed more efficiently — has decreased 37% since the ports put in place a punitive fee on ocean carriers for boxes that remain too long. The fee has yet to be charged because, the ports have said, voluntary cooperation appears to be making a significant dent in the problem.
Both ports, Cordero said, had shown resiliency in the face of a tremendous challenge.
“This port complex has closed not one day,” Cordero said, “despite the radical disruption brought about by a global pandemic.”
And it appears, Garcia said, that shelves were filled and holiday supplies were in place when Thanksgiving arrived.
Now, the two ports are vying to get a chunk of the $17 billion set aside for waterways and ports in the recent infrastructure bill signed by Biden, with port officials saying more federal dollars have gone to ports in the east in the past.
“We’re going to get our fair share here in Long Beach and Los Angeles,” Garcia said.
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