Canada's lower house passes back-to-work legislation for CP workers
On the heels of last week's freight service shutdown by the Canadian Pacific Railway after over 4,800 employees went on strike, Canada's House of Commons reportedly passed back-to-work legislation this morning that could ultimately force the railroad's locomotive engineers, conductors and rail controllers back to work if the bill passes the Senate.
Canadian Pacific management and the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference failed to resolve a contract dispute over pensions and non-union hires last week.
The most recent five-year collective agreement between the CP and its more than 4,800 conductors, engineers, rail traffic controllers and yard workers expired Dec. 31, 2011.
Canada's Federal Labor Minister Laura Raitt said at a news conference after the strike was announced was that the estimated impact to Canada's economy is approximately $540 million per week.
"The government is concerned about the national economic significance this will have and we are prepared to act in the interest of the national economy," she said.
The CP employee strike comes amid a prolonged proxy battle involving activist investor Bill Ackman over the leadership direction of Canada's second largest railway that resulted in chief executive Fred Green's recent resignation.
The major reported points of contention during management-labor negotiations have revolved around benefit pensions and lower cost contribution plans for non-union employees hired after July 1, 2010.
The back-to-work legislation is reportedly expected to pass Canada's Senate and force freight service to resume while the lingering negotiations would head to binding arbitration, according to the Canadian government.
Steinke joins Moffatt & Nichol as port practice leader
Richard Steinke, the former executive director of the Port of Long Beach has joined the consulting engineer firm Moffatt & Nichol as the firm's port practice leader, according to an announcement.
Steinke spent 22-years at the Port of Long Beach, 14 of which were as the big Southern California seaport's executive director until retiring in 2011.
During his tenure at the port, Steinke was noted for advancements in post-9/11 port security, a green trucks program, the launch of the $1-billion middle harbor redevelopment project, and the $950-million Gerald Desmond Bridge replacement project.
"It is exciting to join a firm with such an outstanding reputation. This is a great opportunity to participate in Moffatt & Nichol's future endeavors, as the company builds on its long history of success and expands its global position," said Steinke in a statement.
APM Terminals snags China Shipping in U.S. Gulf and Florida
China Shipping Container Line Company is going to launch cargo service at U.S. Gulf Coast and Florida ports via its slot charter arrangement with France's CMA CGM that is to include calls at APM Terminals Mobile, APM Terminals Jacksonville and Miami's South Florida Container Terminal where APM has a joint venture with Terminal Link, according to an announcement by the terminal operator.
This new China Shipping AAE2 service will include ports of call at include Xiamen, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Busan, Manzanillo, Panama, Houston, Mobile, Miami and Jacksonville. The vessel capacities in the service will range in size from 3,398 TEUs to 5,096 TEUs, APM Terminals said.
BNSF to invest $460 mil in western states
The BNSF Railway Company announced plans to invest approximately $460 million in maintenance and rail capacity improvement projects this year in California, Montana, South Dakota and Texas.
The second largest U.S. railroad said in a statement it would spend an estimated $120 million in California, including the installation of an automated gate system at its Hobart Intermodal Facility and a track maintenance program that would cover 786 miles of track surfacing, undercutting work, the replacement of 40 miles of rail, 377,000 ties, and signal upgrades for federally mandated positive train control (PTC).
The railroad announced it would also invest $111 million for projects in Montana that include upgrading 956 miles of track surfacing and undercutting work, along with replacing 54 miles of rail and about 210,000 ties. The railroad said it would also upgrade for PTC in Montana.
In South Dakota, BNSF said it plans to invest $30 million that would include expansion of rail sidings to increase rail capacity, perform signal upgrades, maintenance of 676 miles of track surfacing and undercutting, in addition to the replacement of 28 miles of track, and about 121,000 ties.
The Fort Worth-based railroad announced it also plans to invest an estimated $199 million on maintenance and rail improvement expansion projects in Texas this year to include enhancement projects such as expansion of rail capacity at Tower 55 in Fort Worth, the realignment of BNSF's mainline for the extension of the Alliance Airport runway just north of Fort Worth, replacement of the Galveston Causeway Bridge, installation of wheel detectors in Galveston, improvements to BNSF's Amarillo car shop, as well as signal upgrades for PTC.
The BNSF said it would also continue track maintenance in Texas, including 1,341 miles of track surfacing and undercutting work, and the replacement of 84 miles of rail and about 563,000 ties.
Baltimore port readies for arrival of four super post-Panamax cranes
The Port of Baltimore and announced it is preparing for the arrival on June 12 of four super post-Panamax container cranes destined for the new 50-foot container berth at the 200-acre Seagirt Marine Terminal that is operated by Ports America.
The port said in a statement the ZMPC cranes that are on their way from China, will be able to reach across 22 containers on a vessel, lift 187,300 pounds of cargo, and will stand 140 feet tall.
Thursday, May 31, 2012
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Obama signs off on Ex-Im reauthorization
The seventy-eight-year-old Export-Import Bank received a lifeline on Wednesday when President Barack Obama signed legislation that reauthorizes the lending institution's financing authority to provide low-interest loans to overseas interests to buy made-in-America goods through September 2014.
"By reauthorizing support for the Export-Import Bank, we're helping thousands of businesses sell more of their products and services overseas," the President said. "And in the process, we're helping them create jobs here at home."
Conservative opposition in Congress to extending the government-backed bank's charter was reportedly intense during a time of lively federal budget debate and whether Ex-Im inhibits free market competition, as the deadline of May 31 loomed for its lending reauthorization that has now been raised to $120 billion and is set to eventually increase to $140 billion.
President Obama was a staunch supporter of the Ex-Im Bank as Congress tussled over its validity.
The White House released a statement on the heels of the renewed legislation stating U.S. companies exported $2.15 trillion worth of goods over the past 12 months - a record 36 percent increase from the previous record of 2009, saying "part of the reason for that success has been the Export-Import Bank."
Canada's labor minister calls for CP workers to voluntarily return to work before Senate vote
Canadian Labor Minister Lisa Raitt called for the 4,800 striking Canadian Pacific's freight railroad workers to voluntarily return to their jobs in advance of a Senate vote that will enforce back-to-work legislation.
"I'm asking the Teamsters and CP Rail to return to work starting from now in 12 hours," Raitt said to reporters at Canada's House of Commons soon after that legislative body passed a back-to-work bill.
News reports out of Canada speculate the Senate could pass the bill today that could have CP freight rail workers back on the job by Friday.
Canadian Pacific management and the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference failed to resolve a contract dispute over pensions and non-union hires last week.
The most recent five-year collective agreement between the CP and its more than 4,800 conductors, engineers, rail traffic controllers and yard workers expired Dec. 31, 2011.
Raitt had previously said at a news conference after the rail strike was announced that the estimated impact to Canada's economy is approximately $540 million per week.
"The government is concerned about the national economic significance this will have and we are prepared to act in the interest of the national economy," she said.
The CP employee strike comes amid a prolonged proxy battle involving activist investor Bill Ackman over the leadership direction of Canada's second largest railway that resulted in chief executive Fred Green's recent resignation.
The major reported points of contention during management-labor negotiations have revolved around benefit pensions and lower cost contribution plans for non-union employees hired after July 1, 2010.
Wash. State Senator calls for D.O.T. to establish freight office
Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash) sent a letter to U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood this week requesting his assistance in establishing a multimodal freight coordinating office that she said should be involved in the "evaluation, cost-benefit analysis, and prioritization of proposed freight investments and loan programs."
Senator Cantwell's letter proposes a federal multimodal office that would be at a "high level" and improve "coordination and multimodal freight planning across all modes and U.S. Department of Transportation operating administrations."
"The creation of a freight office represents an opportunity for a great deal of consolidation and process streamlining among the various agencies that work together to move freight," said Kurt Nagle, president and CEO of the American Association of Port Authorities in a statement.
Other industry groups applauded Senator Cantwell's proposal, including U.S. retailers who stressed their reliance on multi-modal supply chains.
"Without advances in the management of freight programs, proper investment, coordination, and planning, retailers will face significant challenges and infrastructure deficiencies that will significantly hinder their ability to move goods around the world and better serve their customers," said Kelly Kolb, vice president of government affairs for the Retail Industry Leaders Association
Friday, June 1, 2012
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War of words in ILA-USMX contract talks
Contract talks between waterfront employers and labor that operate from Maine to Texas appear to have hit some bumps in the road on the way towards a September 30 deadline as both sides are claiming the other won't budge on issues involving jurisdiction, technology and guaranteed employment.
In the past week, the president of the International Longshore Union, Harold Daggett, and the chief executive of the United States Maritime Alliance, James Capo, posted letters on their respective websites that accused each other of preventing actual negotiations to take place during the run-up period to a master contract that is set to expire in four months.
Daggett wrote in his letter to the ILA rank and file that "the two sides were far apart in their demands and proposals" over terminal automation, chassis pools and work jurisdiction for the union after meetings ended in Tampa, Florida back in March with the USMX.
"I was hopeful that these conversations would expand to subsequent meetings and full-blown negotiations. Unfortunately that has not been the case," he wrote.
In a pointed response to the ILA letter, the USMX's James Capo wrote a letter to his membership that claims: "Daggett has put forth several demands, or 'hurdles,' as he calls them, but has adamantly refused to negotiate or even discuss these or any other issues at the bargaining table unless management first agrees to his demands."
On the automated technology issue, both sides appear to be at odds over the potential impact to waterfront jobs.
Daggett said it has been his goal to "make sure that we all understood that as automation and new technology increased, my highest priority was to make sure that our jobs were preserved under any new Master Contract."
Capo's letter fired back that what Daggett "fails to recognize is that the current Collective Bargaining Agreement mandates that both sides negotiate over the impact new technology might have on the work force."
Capo wrote that reassignment, retraining and severance "would all be subject to negotiation."
Another point of contention that Capo, in particular, pointed to was over chassis pools and whether there should be implicit language in the next contract stipulating ILA jurisdiction as that sector has been shifting away from shipping lines to third party ownership.
Capo said having labor chassis jurisdiction "bound by the Master Contract" would be "impossible to achieve because USMX cannot legally force the pool operators to become members of the Alliance.
Capo's letter did state that chassis pool operators on the East Coast "have already agreed to continue to use ILA members to maintain and repair chassis and honor ILA jurisdiction where it is currently in place."
Capo also claimed that the ILA president wants all imported containers weighed at the pier before being released.
"This would create more unneeded work, add unnecessary expense and increase congestion at the ports," wrote Capo.
As negotiations between the sides have seemingly hit an impasse, Daggett told his members "that they should prepare themselves for any action we may have to take if USMX's position does not change."
At least one major container-shipping line that serves the U.S. East Coast claims it has been making alternate plans in the event of what would reportedly be the first ILA work stoppage in 35 years.
"We have in our business contingency plan created some very good and thoughtful mechanisms that we will go forward with, with our clients [in the event of work stoppage]," Gene Seroka, president of APL Americas told attendees at Cargo Business News' Heartland Shippers Conference in mid-April in Des Moines, Iowa.
Seroka said he and others at APL jumpstarted discussions back in September of last year in terms of "looking for counter-measures and contingency planning to avoid the East Coast in the event there was as work stoppage."
Seroka also said that if there were a work stoppage, it wouldn't likely occur until the end of September.
"Cargo must be re-routed, ordered, and finalized, much earlier than that. So our clients now in their contract negotiations, especially those in the eastbound side of our business, or imports to the United States, have already started to build in language to those agreements in order to assure that there is service provision over the West Coast," Seroka said.
APL owns and operates three marine terminals on the U.S. West Coast.
However, Harold Daggett's counterpart on the West Coast, Robert McEllrath, president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, expressed his union's support of the ILA in a statement released in early May.
"No one should listen to the recent hum of industry executives suggesting they know what dockworkers on the West Coast will or won't do in support of our East Coast brothers and sisters. The fact is that we have their back in the fight to protect work and jurisdiction; their fight is our fight," he said.
Technology at issue as Southern Cal waterfront clerical workers walk away from talks
The Local unit of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union that covers 600 clerical workers at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, Calif. broke off from two days of negotiations with one of 14 marine terminal operators there, as technology implementation has apparently become a sticking point, according to an announcement made by the Harbor Employers Association.
The clerical workers had previously elected to bargain with each HEA member company one at a time on the heels of a coast arbitrator's recent ruling that ILWU members could honor an OCU picket line.
California United Terminals presented the ILWU's Local 63 Office Clerical Unit with three options for a new contract as the former agreement lapsed in September of 2010, according to a statement released by the HEA.
The first option presented by CUT included: unconditional job security; no outsourcing; health insurance and pension through the Pacific Maritime Association-ILWU plan; wage increase to a minimum of $87,000 per year by 2013; guaranteed pay for 40 hours per week; and a $3,000 incentive payment for a new agreement. The terminal operator said it would also modify technology implementation to ensure OCU work was not diverted elsewhere.
The second option would be, on several points, much like the first, but would not alter current OCU benefits, pensions, and offer a $1 per-hour, per year, wage increase.
The third option would be modeled on the OCU in Northern California that is aligned with the ILWU Marine Clerks contract.
However, the HEA says jobs and technology are the sticking points with the L.A.-Long Beach OCU. The clerical workers group wants new hires despite management's contention there is no current business need, and insisting vendors call, fax or email rather than use an employers' websites, according to the HEA. The terminal operators also contend OCU workers prefer to manually enter data instead of utilizing automated data transfers.
Technology at issue as Southern Cal waterfront clerical workers walk away from talks
The Local unit of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union that covers 600 clerical workers at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, Calif. broke off from two days of negotiations with one of 14 marine terminal operators there, as technology implementation has apparently become a sticking point, according to an announcement made by the Harbor Employers Association.
The clerical workers had previously elected to bargain with each HEA member company one at a time on the heels of a coast arbitrator's recent ruling that ILWU members could honor an OCU picket line.
California United Terminals presented the ILWU's Local 63 Office Clerical Unit with three options for a new contract as the former agreement lapsed in September of 2010, according to a statement released by the HEA.
The first option presented by CUT included: unconditional job security; no outsourcing; health insurance and pension through the Pacific Maritime Association-ILWU plan; wage increase to a minimum of $87,000 per year by 2013; guaranteed pay for 40 hours per week; and a $3,000 incentive payment for a new agreement. The terminal operator said it would also modify technology implementation to ensure OCU work was not diverted elsewhere.
The second option would be, on several points, much like the first, but would not alter current OCU benefits, pensions, and offer a $1 per-hour, per year, wage increase.
The third option would be modeled on the OCU in Northern California that is aligned with the ILWU Marine Clerks contract.
However, the HEA says jobs and technology are the sticking points with the L.A.-Long Beach OCU. The clerical workers group wants new hires despite management's contention there is no current business need, and insisting vendors call, fax or email rather than use an employers' websites, according to the HEA. The terminal operators also contend OCU workers prefer to manually enter data instead of utilizing automated data transfers.
On the heels of last week's freight service shutdown by the Canadian Pacific Railway after over 4,800 employees went on strike, Canada's House of Commons reportedly passed back-to-work legislation this morning that could ultimately force the railroad's locomotive engineers, conductors and rail controllers back to work if the bill passes the Senate.
Contract talks between waterfront employers and labor that operate from Maine to Texas appear to have hit some bumps in the road on the way towards a September 30 deadline as both sides are claiming the other won't budge on issues involving jurisdiction, technology and guaranteed employment.