NOTE: The Handy Shipping Guide today was the first global media out to acknowledge the loss of blue collar port workers in the Port of Beirut explosion. Their article included a statement from ILWU International President Willie Adams on behalf of the ILWU Titled Officers, Coast Committeemen, and rank and file workers. Excerpts below, and we encourage you to read the full article on the Handy Shipping Guide web site.

With the bulk of the dead and seriously injured likely to be those working in or visiting the port, messages of sympathy and solidarity were soon being sent. A statement from Willie Adams, International President of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) summed up the feelings of port and logistics workers everywhere, saying:

”ILWU workers on the West Coast of the United States and Canada grieve the tremendous losses that Beirut is suffering following an explosion of stored material at a port warehouse. While the chaos of the explosion has yet to reveal the full scope of human loss, we are heartbroken to learn that longshore workers lost their lives when their worksite became ground zero for the catastrophic explosion. The city of Beirut and thousands of families will never be the same.