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ALREADY
under pressure from a tendency for Asian
cargo to bypass the US west coast, the longshoremen's
union will unwittingly drive another nail
in the coffin of the beleaguered transpacific
trade. Worse, a divided management will
let them get away with it.
Don't
look to politicians for help. They are pro-labour
on the US Left Coast, and even those who
are not are more worried about their electoral
fortunes in the next two years than any
longer-term threat to shipping.
The
International Longshore and Warehouse Union
(ILWU) is unwilling to see the consequences
of their behaviour and realise the impracticality
of what they want even if the consequences
of their greed is staring them in the face.
The
ILWU, long influenced by Marxist thinking.
has long held the view that they don't want
to own the cow - they just want to milk
it. And the union's solidarity-forever tradition
is the only thing that matters in their
us-against-them world.
And
milk the cow they do, with wages that are
startling - US$200,000 a year -to anyone
anywhere who either does the same work or
employs men who do it in other sectors.
But
instead of counting their lucky stars, and
ensure a stable waterfront along the west
coast, they want it all - and they want
it now. An attitude that will become more
prevalent long before their six-year contract
expires on June 30, 2014.
Entirely
missed by the ILWU is that the US west coast
is losing market share to Canada, to the
Panama and to the Suez canals. Canada's
west coast market share in containers was
7.5 per cent in 2000 and stood at 13.9 per
cent in 2012.
Growth
is almost nonexistent with LA-Long Beach
increasing 1.5 per cent in the first half,
notes Newark's Journal of Commerce. And
what gains there have been, Tacoma's 29
per cent quarterly TEU jump was at the expense
of Seattle, which lost the G6 Alliance business.
Canada
is small beer compared to other threats.
Vancouver runs 95 per cent of its cargo
to Canadian destinations and while northern
Prince Rupert does most of its trade with
the US, shaving nearly three days off transit
times to Chicago vis-a-vis landing east-bound
freight in LA-Long Beach, its volumes are
miniscule.
More
important are the losses through the Panama
Canal, which has been siphoning off cargo
from the west coast to Savannah and then
Charleston and Virginia because it was closer
to where the cargo wants to go, avoiding
the long truck or rail trek across the United
States.
Today,
one adds the Suez threat. Six years ago,
little cargo east of Singapore moved via
Suez to the US east coast. But now megaships,
combined with sophisticated four corners
warehousing in America, and wayporting from
Dubai to Tangier, have changed the game
yet again.
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