(Second story is in a ‘Blog’ but seems to have a bearing here?)
Our local train traffic, on a section of the BNSF Southern Transcon seems to have taken an unexplained, increase in its level of trains through this area. Started on this last Tuesday (2/2/2015) and was noticeable as the Eastbound traffic was pushing throug on a very close headway between trains. It allseemed to be Eastbound when it got started. Now there is some returning Westbound COFC/TOFC traffic.
Point being, any kind of ‘strike’ on the West Coast will drastically effect our economy and railroad’s profitibility, in a time when they have been experiencing growth in most facets of their business.
Do any of the Posters out West have ‘a better take’ on any of this?
EDIT [ to add some Content]
I did not add this at the original Post, but going back and reading it, It seems to be a farsighted, but somewhat accurate of the current situation that is brewing in West Coast Ports. It is in a ‘Blog’ posting; it is written by a manager at C.H. Robinson:Mr. Sri Laxmana,dated 05/20/14. Linked @ http://blog.chrobinson.com
Didn’t we go through this a couple years ago before the Government stepped in and ordered the workers back as being too essential to the national economy?
The union the ILWU is blaming the slowdown in part on the rail roads. They say not enough cars to move the containers. This shortage of cars has never been mentioned on any of the RR web sites I read daily. Does any one know of such a problem.
Over this weekend (starting on Feb 06/07/08) The Pacific Maritime Assoc shut down their members ports, to clear out the ‘congestion’ at those ports (?). It seems that each side in this dispute is blaming the other for the issues within the ports. ILWU (sometime back ordered/suggested that its members ‘work safely’ - apparent code words ( per PMA) by ILWU for its members to ‘slow down’ their production.
According to the PMA spokespersons. And as USMC 1401 mentioned, apparently the rialroads are getting some ‘blame’ for a lack of cars to move containers from the ports. The PMA made a claim that this ‘action’ has slowed down activity at the ports by about 50% (?).
The rhetoric seems to be ramping up, and getting somewhat more inflamatory on both sides. The ILWU has never been a group to ‘hold back’ and not project inflamatory rhetoric into a situation in which they were in dispute with an industru organization on. A year or year and a half ago there was a big dust up in the PNW over a new grain train operation at a port around the Seattle area (?).
Yeah, a work slowdown by the railroads; I really believe that (not). The longshoremen had better watch it or see their name added to the long list of workers who went down with all flags flying – but went down.
It’ll hurt them a lot more than it will the owner members of the port association, who, if worse comes to worse, will find something else to do.
Intermodal revenue generated from KCS’s line to the Mexican port on the Pacific Ocean jumped 20 percent year-over-year, after five consecutive quarters of single-digit growth. The company didn’t disclose statistics of container traffic tied to the port, but said growth at the port has strengthened and the long-term outlook for related container traffic gains was strong.
Although the railroad hasn’t handled U.S.-bound intermodal traffic from Lazaro Cardenas, KCS President and CEO David Starling told investors on Friday they are having discussions with carriers “to serve the Gulf Coast beyond Houston and maybe some of the markets in the Southeast,” according to a SeekingAlpha transcript. Starling’s statement was in response to a question from an analyst on whether the railroad was benefitting or saw the potential to gain volume from shippers diverting cargo from the congestion Port of Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex, the largest U.S. import gateway.
It seems as if this situation on the West Coast is still grinding on: The Current call by the PMA is to shut down ports; starting on Thursday 02/12/2015 and staying down til at Least thru Tuesday 02/17/2015. The(4 day long) President’s Day Weekend.
FTL:“…Loading and unloading of cargo vessels at the 29 ports will be suspended again, as they were last weekend, on Thursday and again on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, the companies’ bargaining agent, the Pacific Maritime Association, said in a statement…”
Some statements from the above link to illustrated some of their ‘sticking points’: FTL:“…To cite a timely example, President Obama’s Affordable Health Care act imposes a tax on so-called Cadillac plans under which corporate executives are covered. The ILWU medical plan would make many corporate executives envious. ILWU members pay no premiums, and their co-pay for medicine is $1…”
and this: FTL:"…Who is going to pay the additional $150 million in taxes?” said Jim McKenna, president of the Pacific Maritime Association, which represents employers. “The
Do not expect this to last for a long time. Too much tied to national economy. In the short term the effect on the transcons may cause a reduction in the reported intermodal weekly traffic. Once over we may see major delays to Amtrak trains on those routes as fluidity may suffer.
I wouldn’t be too sanguine as to this. According to my understanding, the longshoremen come under the Labor Relations Act and, in case of a strike, can’t be forced back to work like railroad workers, who come under the Railway Labor Act.
I live along the west coast, and this has been an on-going issue for a while now. Its been a cat and mouse battle between the port managers and the longshoremen. Each claiming the otherside is responsible for the slow downs etc. The longshoremen have been without a contract since around July of last year and it doesn’t look like they’ll come to an agreement anytime soon. There was a recent slow down this past weekend and there has been a warning for a potential shutdown. So far I haven’t noticed any slow down in railway traffic, but if the shut down does happen it will impact many industries, not just those working at the ports. Hopefully the two sides can eventually come to an agreement before anything worse happens.
I think the Taft-Hartley Act gives the President the power to intervene in strikes or lock outs that threaten the National interest. It can send everyone back to work, but might not be able to impose a contract like the RLA process can.
A couple of items of information on this: To what Dakotafred said about length of time . My understanding is that these contract negotiations were started in June or July of 2014(?) So it would seem that both sides are still ‘posturing’ themselves in that process(?) Just remember that the ILWU is and was always a very hard, negotiating organization. Their past activities have been linked to some very problematic labor incidents, involving previous labor/management unrest.
The following linked article referencing some of the other questions stated in this Thread: @
Except that they’re all ‘toast’ now - they’ve demonstrated their unreliability and inability to ‘bury the hatchet’ to serve their customers. With what an idle ship costs per day and the disruptions to overseas shippers and the resulting need for them to arrange substitute transportation, all of them will be looking for more permanent reliable alternative ports - (“a pox on both their houses”). It may take a while - wider Panama Canal, new and deeper or improved East Coast ports, etc. But any shipper who relies mostly or exclusively on those Pacific Coast ports is now too vulnerable - essentially a sword of Damocles hanging over their heads - and their continued existence is very problematic, subject to the happenstance of labor peace, which now appears to be merely a ‘sometime thing’.