This year’s Trans-Pacific Maritime Conference was more upbeat than last year’s, when ocean-carrier executives were shaking their heads and lamenting that the industry had lost $17 billion in 2009. But that all changed in early 2010, when consumers came out of hibernation and rediscovered the path to the mall.
Labor issues at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach shouldn’t be a problem this year because the contract between terminal operators and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union doesn’t expire until 2014. But the ports’ contract with the 950-strong office-clerks union, ILWU Local 63, expired 10 months ago. Progress has been slow getting both sides to agree on a new contract.
Bob McEllrath, international president of the ILWU, was speaking at the trans-Pacific conference with Jim McKenna, president and chief executive of the Pacific Maritime Association, which represents the marine terminal operators. McEllrath said he was hoping to sit down with the clerks union and the port negotiators to see if something could be resolved.