Nipping East Coast Strike Talks in the Bud

While the National Retail Federation and other shipper associations are calling upon the U.S. Maritime Alliance and the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) to work together to avoid a one-day shutdown of East Coast and Gulf Coast ports this spring, some analysts suggest that the ILA is simply leveraging its position for future contract negotiations.

According to Panjiva, an online search engine with detailed information on global suppliers and manufacturers, the reaction of the Maritime Alliance – representing employers – would suggest this is all just part of master contract negotiations that will take U.S. Maritime Alliance effect from September 2018.

In a recent blog post and subsequent conversation with SCMR, Panjiva maintains that the “longshoremen's short strike is long term ploy.”

It comes as employment in water-borne transport employment increased for the first time since October, as outlined in Panjiva research of February 3.

“The major round of industrial action afflicted the ports of LA and Long Beach in late 2014 to early 2015 did have a material effect on local industrial action shipping,” says Panjiva Research Director Chris Rogers.

Container handling on the west coast fell 24.0% on a year earlier in January 2014 on a year earlier, Panjiva data shows.

That was because the combined 67.1% of traffic for the west coast handled through the two Panjiva data ports could not be easily picked up by other west coast facilities traffic for on the Pacific Rim.

“In the case of strikes at (say) New York harbor and Charleston there could be a significant impact on regional shipping,” says Rogers.

The two combined accounted for 51.7% of east coast incoming traffic in the 12 months to January 31. While lower than the 67% accounted for by LA and Long Beach, the east coast substitute ports – principally Norfolk for New York and Savannah for Charleston – have already experienced rapid growth.

“That may mean there is limited flexibility to adapt to disruptions,” added Rogers.

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