Excerpts from the Los Angeles Times. Note that the Jobs 1st Alliance includes the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 11, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, BNSF Railway, Union Pacific, and others:
The Jobs 1st Alliance fears that the ports could lose as many as 100,000 jobs when the Panama Canal overhaul allows much larger ships to bypass California (when the Panama Canal expansion is completed in 2014.)
“Worst case, there could be a 25% diversion from Los Angeles-Long Beach,” said Paul Bingham, the group’s chief economist. “That’s upwards of 3 million cargo containers. That’s a lot of dockworkers who don’t get work, truckers with less to haul and trains that don’t run.”
Jobs 1st Alliance is worried by the efficiency that Panamanian authorities have shown in keeping the project on schedule and their zeal in pursuing business with other ports … By contrast, U.S public and private efforts launched in response to the Panama project are being slowed by red tape and lawsuits.
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