Co-operation should be the new watchword down on the waterfront. Without it, profiting in the 21st-century container shipping marketplace will be a long shot at best, regardless of which side of the border your terminal or port resides.
Following the tentative resolution to the longshore labour dispute that slowed container cargo flow through U.S. West Coast ports for months, the mayors of Los Angeles and Long Beach pledged to collaborate on initiatives ranging from supply chain logistics and security to marketing and the environment.
The two ports will need a lot of collaborating to right the West Coast’s container cargo ship.
The protracted contract dispute between the Pacific Maritime Association and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union has left a container backlog that under a best-case estimate will take at least six weeks to clear. Shippers, ocean carriers and customers are not keen on that kind of supply chain disruption.
Meanwhile on this side of the border, Port Metro Vancouver (PMV) could use some of the U.S. mayoral co-operation commitment.
The U.S. longshore labour fight might have helped PMV post record tonnage handled in 2014 by diverting cargo north, but during the past month both national railways and their unions narrowly avoided labour confrontations that could again have stalled goods movement through Canada’s Asia-Pacific Gateway.
And the container truck controversy is far from over. The dispute’s latest episode has truckers’ representatives calling for the resignation of the newly appointed trucking commissioner over their concerns about his impartiality.
But here is why it’s reality-check time down at the docks: there’s no guarantee that PMV will continue to rack up record cargo shipments; there’s no guarantee that major ocean carriers will continue to patronize Vancouver; the only guarantee is that trade will flow along the path of least resistance.
Labour-management co-operation is the only way to ensure that B.C. ports are on that path.
