Ship at Port of Oakland
Multiple international shipping agencies are conducting a comprehensive review of refrigerated containers processed at a Vietnam port, the Pacific Maritime Association said in a statement, after some units exploded, reportedly killing two mechanics in Vietnam and one in Brazil.
Besides the inherent risk for longshoremen — who in Oakland, Calif., have even refused to move containers processed in Vietnam — industry workers expressed concern for the general public once these faulty containers, known as “reefers,” are unloaded and shipped out on trucks and freight trains.
“We don’t want this reefer going down the road and exploding next to a mom and her kids,” Chris Peeler, a member of the Labor Relations Committee of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, local 19 in Seattle, told KING5.com.