Last week, the largest West Coast port — the Port of Los Angeles — along with the Port of Long Beach experienced an unplanned 24-hour closure. The ports closed because dock workers simply didn’t show up, leaving the Thursday night shift and the Friday day shift unmanned.
The International Longshore and Warehouse Union issued a statement saying workers not showing up for their shifts was no big deal:
On the evening of Thursday, April 6, 2023, International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 13 held its monthly membership meeting as is its contractual right. … Several thousand union members attend the monthly meeting.
On Friday, April 7, 2023, union members who observe religious holidays took the opportunity to celebrate with their families.
The Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), which represents the terminals, had a different take on the situation. On Friday, the PMA stated:
The largest ILWU local on the West Coast has taken a concerted action to withhold labor at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, resulting in widespread worker shortages. A majority of the jobs for last night’s shift went unfilled, including all jobs for cargo-handling equipment operators needed to load and unload cargo. The workers who did show up were released because there was not a full complement of ILWU members to operate the terminals.
ILWU Local 13 withheld labor again for this morning’s shift. The action by the Union has effectively shut down the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach – the largest gateway for maritime trade in the United States.
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Anyone who thinks unions are helpful is nuts.
Cynic,
Anyone who thinks unions are helpful is a communist.
There. Fixed it for ya.
The railroad workers wanted to strike in the middle of the supply chain disruptions.
Are they going to move things up to Seattle? Their contract says Port Of Seattle Police cannot carry weapons on the docks. That goes back to labor violence in the 1930’s.
I knew someone who had been a Seattle (City) police officer. He had a friend on the Port Of Seattle Police. One day his friend called him and said he had to arrest a longshoreman for an outstanding warrant and wanted the city officer to come arrest him — because the city officer could be armed.
The city officer shows up and goes walking on the dock. A shop steward confronts him and says “You aren’t allowed to be armed here.”
The officer replied, “Wrong department. But I do have room in my car for two.”