The Word on the Waterfront

According to the  news announced by the corporate-owned media recently, “Two terminals at the Port of Long Beach and one at the Port of Los Angeles shut down Monday in the wake of disruptions that hit a number of West Coast ports after contract talks deteriorated in recent days.” What the corporate journalists hid from the readers is that on the previous Thursday, June 1, during a regularly scheduled stop-work meeting for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, it was revealed that the Pacific Maritime Association offered the dockworkers, who have worked throughout the pandemic and since July without a contract, a paltry  $1.50 an hour raise. They offered no pandemic work bonus pay despite the fact that some 42 union members died from COVID-19 and that the shipping companies and terminals raked in record-breaking profits.

Also misreported is that during the pandemic, because of the overwhelming workload and the supply chain congestion that followed, there was significant delayed maintenance at the terminals. The ILWU has the right by contract to inspect and repair equipment for safety concerns and they’ve done so recently. It was further reported that “Mario Cordero, executive director of the Port of Long Beach, said in a statement that the terminals closed due to operational needs and were set to reopen for the evening shift.”

And Bloomberg News, always one source you can depend on to defend the corporations, reported, “At least one Long Beach port terminal is set to shut Tuesday (June 6) amid labor rift.”

Just to put things in perspective, according to gCaptain, an online trade news outlet, the second quarter of 2022 marked the seventh consecutive quarter of record highest net income for the shipping industry. That period saw profits jump from $35.1 billion to $63.7 billion. Even though shipping volumes have declined on the West Coast mostly out of fears of the extended labor negotiations, profits continue to rise. 

 This source went on to say, “However, in a new analysis by shipping expert John McCown, 2023 will remain a profitable year for container shipping despite the current financial decline. The industry had a net income of $13 billion in the first quarter of 2023.”

Clearly, many longshoremen reacted after hearing about the offer. 

The word on the waterfront is that this was not an organized work action but more of a visceral one-finger salute to the PMA by individual members. These “wildcat” actions will probably extend up and down the coast the longer the nearly one-year old negotiations continue to drag on. Even with the announcement that negotiations have restarted.

One ILWU worker put it to me this way, “It was like we were at the 2-yard line and they came at us with a buck and a half dollar raise? The guys are really pissed off but most of them are still working.”

In a released statement issued June 2, the ILWU Local 13 said, “the 12,000 Southern California Longshore workers who move the nation’s cargo remain in an arduous fight with the ocean carriers and terminal operators.” The release went on to say that the industry made approximately $500 billion in the past two years, “as the essential workforce toiled around the clock.” 

There is still a lot of rumors and scuttlebutt on the waterfront these days, exacerbated by postings on social media, while  the union’s negotiators up in San Francisco remain tight-lipped — while the PMA babble like a running brook misleading information as they’ve issued at least two releases to Bloomberg News about “labor actions and slowdowns.”

Even with this, the ocean carriers have been diverting cargo from the Pacific Far East through the Panama Canal to avoid any further congestion problems like they had last year when 100 ships backed up in the San Pedro Bay. This has raised concerns at the ports which have seen  a 30% drop-off in container traffic over previous years. This may be a tactic to squeeze the unions into accepting lower offers claiming that their current profits are down — a game of chicken to see who will fold first.

However, in this time of workers agitating for better wages and working conditions in Los Angeles and beyond (think  Writers Guild of America and the Hollywood studios and Service Employees International Union 99 and the LA Unified School District), the working class is feeling empowered and I would not be surprised if on the one-year anniversary of the end of the ILWU contract,  longshore workers just choose not to show up for work July 1.

The other side of this is what the shipping industry has cost the nation in the way of inflation with the costs of imports exploding over the past couple of years. This has nothing to do with the Federal Reserve’s interest rates, which have gone from near zero during the COVID-19 recession to record highs that are threatening banks holding treasury bonds and slowing down home purchases.  

The ocean carriers, like the film industry, have made huge fortunes over the past few years, and by the looks of things they aren’t going to share the wealth with the working class without a fight. The ramifications for the average family and the local economy around the twin ports could be severe if the PMA doesn’t come to a fair agreement very soon. 

The fireworks this Fourth of July may be something more unexpected than spectacular this year if this goes unresolved!