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Now that last year’s grain backup is being resolved, Union Pacific and BNSF railroads say they are worried about a shutdown at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
Intermodal traffic amounted to about 20 percent of UP’s annual freight revenue in 2014, while BNSF’s intermodal freight division accounted for 30 percent of its freight revenue.
A federal mediator has recently been called in to help spur a compromise between negotiators of the Pacific Maritime Association and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, who have been in talks for a new dockworker contract at 29 West Coast ports.
"We have not seen anything to indicate the mediator has helped or not," U.P. CEO Jack Koraleski said in an interview Thursday.
If a shutdown of the port complex occurs, Koraleski said U.P. would enact an embargo, refusing to haul cargo destined for the Los Angeles and Long Beach waterfronts. He said that would prevent a domino effect that would delay rail shipments far inland.
"We will do everything we can to protect the integrity of our network," said Koraleski, whose
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railroad operates 32,000 miles of track in 23 Western states.
UP has invested heavily in the port, operating the closest rail cargo terminal to the docks, the Intermodal Container Transfer Facility, four miles away. BNSF spokeswoman Amy Casas said that "unresolved labor issues" at L.A./Long Beach could cut into business at its terminals in both Los Angeles and San Bernardino.
"There is so little slack in the global transportation system, the railroads can’t risk having traffic backed up halfway to Omaha because of port problems," said Joeseph Schwieterman, a transportation professor at Chicago’s DePaul University.
For more of the Omaha.com story: www.omaha.com
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