With at least 50 container ships anchored off the West Coast on Tuesday, the eyes of the international trade community were focused on San Francisco to learn if U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez could break the impasse in contract negotiations between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association. Negotiations Tuesday continued late into the day, but neither the PMA nor the ILWU would discuss what was taking place behind closed doors.
Meanwhile, terminal operators in Seattle, Tacoma, Portland, Oakland, Los Angeles and Long Beach resumed vessel, yard and gate operations Tuesday after four days of on-again, off-again calls for labor by employers over the President’s Day weekend. The PMA since Thursday had maintained a policy of cancelling much of the work that called for overtime pay to longshoremen. The PMA said employers could no longer afford to pay longshoremen overtime wages for working at half speed. Terminal operators were therefore working to clear out the backlog of containers that had accumulated at the ports over the weekend, and to finish working vessels that were at berth so newly-arrived vessels could be brought to berth. The Marine Exchange of Southern California reported that 22 containerships were at anchor Tuesday morning, one less than on Monday. Oakland said 19 vessels were at anchor or waiting outside of Golden Gate Bridge, and about nine vessels were at anchor outside of Tacoma.
Source: Journal of Commerce