White House takes action over west-coast ports
16/02/2015
Contract talks between the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), representing port operators, and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), representing port workers, began nine months ago. By November, there was no agreement in sight and congestion at several major ports began to hold up the flow of goods.
There has still been no improvement and vessel loading and unloading operations were suspended over the first two weekends in February, with the PMA stating that its members could not afford to pay longshore workers weekend and holiday premiums for “severely diminished productivity”.
On February 16, the chair of the US Meat Export Federation (USMEF), Leann Saunders, said port congestion is now causing “major problems” for US meat exporters. She said a valuable global customer base that has taken the US meat industry decades to build up is now being “placed in jeopardy by the port labour impasse”.
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