Excerpts from the Journal of Commerce:
The Panama Canal Pilots Union will not try to renegotiate its contract with the Panama Canal Authority this year as both parties are allowed under the existing contract.The Panama Canal Pilots Association, also known as the Asociación de Prácticos del Canal de Panamá, is a division of the ILWU.
The announcement by the union that represents the canal’s 256 pilots is the latest move in a simmering dispute over the loss of pilots’ jobs in the canal authority’s plans for guiding post-Panama ships into the large new locks that will open to traffic in early 2015.
Capt. Rainiero Salas, president of the Panama Canal Pilots’ Association, told JOC.com earlier this month that the navigation methods chosen to guide post-Panamax vessels into the new expanded locks and through the enlarged canal channels run higher risks of accidents than existing practices.
Salas said the pilots union’s announcement that it would not initiate renegotiation of the collective bargaining agreement was aimed at making clear “that our main interest is to maintain a safe and efficient canal, with strict compliance to applicable navigation rules and good seamanship standards. Our customers and the nation deserve no less.”
