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Now
the big 18,000-TEUers, not to mention those
in the 10,000 to 15,000 range, drop off
cargo at transshipment ports where it is
quickly transferred to smaller transatlantic
ships that can access shallow water ports
from Montreal to Miami.
One
can sympathise with Pacific Maritime Association
president Jim McKenna, of the west coast
employers group, when he described as unions'
"combative, emotional", adding
that "maintaining and expanding jurisdiction
will rule the day" in the talks to
come.
Perhaps
one should look to the UK for encouragement.
In the days of Margaret Thatcher, she broke
the union yoke with the coal miners. Encouraged
by that victory, Rupert Murdoch, who owned
the Times of London and Conrad Black who
owned the Daily Telegraph faced down their
own print unions that fought tooth and nail
against automation. At the Daily Telegraph
in the early '80s, a Canadian journalist
was amazed to discover practices still extant
that were outmoded in his father's day at
the New York Daily Mirror in the 1920s.
So
there was a knock-down drag out fight with
the unions; the owners closed down fabled
Fleet Street over which union contracts
had given unions control, and moved lock,
stock and barrel downstream to the Isle
of Dogs at Canary Wharf.
There
savage battles occurred, but in the end,
the war was won by common sense and lost
by the luddites championing the obstruction
of technological change.
The
two situations have parallels. Both the
British national press and today's waterfront
management share an unhelpful rivalry and
as a house divided face a single, single-minded
union. In both situations, there is always
at least one company in worse shape than
the rest ready to cave, which brings down
the entire front. In Fleet Street, there
was one, then two, then more companies ready
to act independently.
On
the US east and Gulf coasts, it was much
the same and the International Longshoremen's
Association (ILA) got away with much more
than they should have done. But at least
the US east coast ports are gaining tonnage
- even in a weak market - while west coast
ports languish.
While
we can see encouraging signs in the ILWU
failing to oust workers from the International
Brotherhood of Electrical Workers who handle
reefer functions in Portland, the issue
is tied up in litigation and is indeed a
legal conundrum with one party signing two
conflicting, but equally binding contracts.
So there is little to celebrate here.
Perhaps
west coast maritime employers will anticipate
the conflict ahead, and prepare for it.
West coast ports must make themselves customer
friendly and cheaper and better than their
rivals.
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