It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Monday, April 17, 2023
Photos: Indonesian Navy Responds to Tanker Collision
Fortune Pacific XLIX sustained damage to the starboard superstructure, bridge wind and hull (TNI Angkatan Laut photos)
The Indonesia Navy released photos showing the extent of the damage to two product tankers after they collided near one of the country’s large oil terminals. The Navy reports that both vessels sustained serious damage but that there were no casualties or pollution during the incident.
The report provided only basic details and no information on the circumstances of the incident and elements such as the timing of the accident or weather conditions.
The product tanker Fortune Pacific XLIX was leaving the terminal near the Merak Seaport on the northwestern tip of Java. The terminal lies off the busy Sunda Strait separating Indonesia and Java.
The 6,459 dwt product tanker’s AIS signal shows it was departed overnight on April 9 – 10. The 15-year old vessel built in 2008 and registered in Indonesia is 370 feet long.
Inbound in the anchorage was another product tanker the Sinar Malahayati. The 20,938 dwt tanker was arriving after a voyage from Saudi Arabia and the UAE. The 17-year old vessel built in 2006 and registered in Singapore is 485 feet long.
The Banten Harbormaster and Port Authority did not indicate the circumstances but the bow of the Sinar Malahayati made contact with the Fortune Pacific XLIX causing damage to the hull, forward superstructure, and the starboard bridge wing. The pictures show the bridge wing dangling and broken, and the superstructure crushed and mangled.
The Banten Navy Commander reports they dispatched a medical team to the ship along with a security team to determine the circumstances and assist with the evacuation of crewmembers who were injured in the accident.
Both vessels were ordered to remain in the anchorage while the harbormaster began the investigation. AIS data shows that Sinar Malahayati was permitted to move to the terminal on April 12. The Fortune Pacific XLIX remains in the anchorage.
Norwegian Shipping Line Faces US MARPOL Charges from African Incident
The US is prosecuting an alleged MARPOL violation off Africa found while inspecting records in the US (file photo)
Clipper Shipping, a division of Norway’s Solvang, a leading transporter of LPG and petrochemical gases, has been ordered to appear in a Houston court on April 18 for a first hearing related to a case over MARPOL violations. While the U.S. brings several MARPOL cases each year against merchant ships, this case is more unusual because it was not in a U.S. port and the way the situation was discovered.
The criminal charges were filed on April 6, 2023, in the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division against Clipper Shipping and its vessel the Clipper Saturn. An unnamed chief engineer is being cited as the person in charge and responsible for the issues in the violation.
In the filing, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas says that the U.S. as part of an international regime enforces the MARPOL agreements to prevent pollution. They highlight that the U.S. in its role enforces the regulations for vessels regardless of their registry in the navigable waters of the U.S. or while in a port or terminal under the jurisdiction of the U.S. The Coast Guard has the authority to conduct inspections and enforcement of the laws.
The filing does not explain how the U.S. discovered these violations. They were apparently uncovered during a routine inspection by the U.S. Coast Guard when the 42,500 dwt Clipper Saturn arrived in the Port of Houston around October 28, 2021. The vessel, which was built in 2015 and is registered in Norway, is part of the company’s fleet of large gas carriers designed to carry butane, propane, or ammonia. It has a cargo capacity of 60,000 cbm.
The criminal information in the case filing points out the legal requirement of the ship to maintain an Oil Record Book detailing all of its waste oil operations and discharges. They point out that as the senior officer in the engine room, the chief engineer is responsible for the accuracy of the record book.
They contend that the Clipper Saturn made an illegal discharge of oily waste while at anchor. However, instead of happening in U.S. waters, they allege the incident took place while the vessel was at anchor off the coast of Lome, Togo in West Africa.
The initial details do not allege that the discharge was seen and under investigation. Instead during a routine document check while in Houston, they report that the U.S. Coast Guard discovered that the Oil Record Book “failed to contain properly recorded entries regarding discharges of machinery space bilge water that had not been processed and discharged to a shore facility or barge.” They allege the incidents took place a month before the inspection, between September 27 and October 1, while the vessel was anchored off Togo.
The April 18 court appearance in Houston is a preliminary hearing to set terms for the case. Typically, courts have ordered the crewmembers from a ship to remain in the U.S. while the case proceeds which may mean they can be retained in the U.S. for months. The typical outcome is a fine and probation for the company and many shipping companies settle the cases as opposed to proceeding to trial. The ship’s officers however could serve jail time if convicted.
The Ice in East Antarctica Has Melted Before
The ice sheet in Queen Maud Land in East Antarctica is not stable, and large amounts of ice have melted in the past
A team from NTNU collected rock samples from peaks that protrude from East Antarctica's ice (NTNU / Ola Fredin)
Sixty per cent of the world’s fresh water is bound up in Antarctic ice sheets. Thirty million cubic kilometers of ice is perhaps a difficult number to grasp. But if absolutely all Antarctica’s ice melted, the seas would rise by 58 meters on average.
“The ice sheet in East Antarctica stores enormous amounts of water. This means that this is the biggest possible source of future sea level rise – up to 53 meters if all of the East Antarctic ice melts – and is seen as the largest source of uncertainties in the future sea level adaptation planning,” says Irina Rogozhina, an associate professor at the Department of Geography at NTNU.
Most melting/ice loss in Antarctica happens through ocean-driven melting of ice shelves and ice calving. This, in turn, leads to an acceleration of ice streams on land and a greater discharge of ice into the ocean, where it gets lost to melting/calving, she said.
This was also likely the cause of larger ice loss during warmer periods of the past. In Greenland, these two processes contribute to about 65% of all ice loss.
But not all the ice needs to melt before it can have major consequences.
Researchers from NTNU were among a group of scientists who examined the ice in Queen Maud Land in East Antarctica. The results show that this ice sheet sector has varied a lot over time. This information is important as researchers try to learn more about the planet’s climate and how it is changing.
The American researcher Nat Lifton in front of Cottontop Mountain in Heimefrontfjella. He’s looking for rocks that can be collected and analysed for cosmogenic isotopes. The six-wheeled pickup truck is used to transport researchers from the Antarctic research station where they’re staying to their different field sites. Photo: Carl Lundberg
Rogozhina’s group studied the ice sheet in East Antarctica and a meltdown that took place a few thousand years ago. The results have been published in the Nature journal Communications Earth & Environment.
The ice in the east lies on land
The ice sheet in Antarctica is not evenly distributed or uniform. In the west, large parts of the ice sheet lie under sea level, down to a depth of 2,500 metres. This makes it very vulnerable to ocean warming. In contrast, much of the ice sheet in the east sits directly on land, above sea level, meaning it is less sensitive to the ocean’s influence.
This ice sheet sector in East Antarctica was thinner in the past than it is now, and not particularly long ago either. In fact, it was thinner following the end of the last ice age, when massive ice sheets previously covered North America, northern Europe and southern South America. When these ice sheets melted, they raised the sea level by more than 100 metres.
“From the evidence we presented in our study, we concluded that the East Antarctic ice sheet in Queen Maud Land also melted rapidly along its margins between 9,000 to 5,000 years ago, in a period we call the mid-Holocene. At this time, many parts of the world experienced warmer-than-present summers,” Rogozhina said.
“Although this kind of response by the East Antarctic ice sheet to the warmth during the Holocene is not completely unexpected, it is still difficult and worrisome to believe that the sluggish East Antarctic ice sheet can change so rapidly,” she said.
It’s difficult to find a simple, easy explanation for this behaviour, or to determine the exact timing when the melting took place, not least because the conditions in this part of the world are rather inhospitable at times.
But the researchers found a way to unravel this mystery.
Cosmic radiation changes rocks
The research group examined rocks from various nunataks in Queen Maud Land for exposure to cosmic radiation.
“Nunataks are mountains that stick up through the ice. We have visited nunataks and taken samples,” says Ola Fredin, a professor at the Department of Geosciences and Petroleum.
The researchers examine different isotopes, or variants, of elements such as chlorine, aluminium, beryllium and neon in rocks from the nunataks. With the help of cosmogenic isotopes, they can figure out how high the ice was over geological time in Queen Maud Land. Fredin compares this to using a dipstick to measure the level of engine oil in your car.
In this way, the researchers can say something about how long the rocks have been exposed to cosmic radiation. They can then also say something about how long it has been since the rocks have been under a protective layer of ice and thus have not absorbed any cosmic radiation.
For this, they use data from different areas and run a variety of computer simulations.
Rising seas and warmer water broke up the ice
The researchers also believe that they are on track to find a reason why the ice sheet sector in East Antarctica thinned so much immediately after the end of the last ice age.
“We believe that the ice sheet became less stable due to higher, regional sea levels and warmer water rising from the ocean depths in the polar regions, penetrating under the ice margins and melting them from below. This leads to the break-up of large icebergs and accelerates the movement of ice from the land to the ocean, which in turn thins the inland section of the ice sheet. The process is similar to when a house on a hill slope loses its supporting foundation and starts sliding downhill,” Rogozhina said.
In short, the less stable, rapidly flowing parts of the ice sheet in East Antarctica, which are called ice shelves and float on the ocean, were broken up more easily, which in turn led to the ice sheet becoming much thinner within a relatively short time, geologically speaking, or a few hundreds to thousands of years.
Researcher Nat Lifton (closest) and mountain guide Carl Lundberg (higher up) climb a small nunatak to look for suitable rock samples. Photo: Ola Fredin, NTNU
Thick ice is the most common along the coast
Cosmic radiation can also help researchers figure out how common it is for ice to cover an area. The researchers have also investigated this.
The results show that it is most common for the ice in Queen Maud Land to be thick along the coast. But not further into the continent, where mountain peaks protrude through the ice and the land can be several thousand metres high.
“We found that the land masses along the coast of Queen Maud Land have been covered by ice between 75 and 97 per cent of the time during the last one million years,” Fredin said.
He was part of another study, which has also had its results published in Nature Communications Earth & Environment. This group examined rocks from several different areas in Queen Maud Land, and found great variations.
“In contrast to areas along the coast, which have been ice-covered most of the time, we find that mountain summits further into the continent have been ice-covered as little as 20 per cent of the time,” Fredin said.
The ice sheet thickness and movement speed therefore vary a great deal over longer periods, and the mountain range further into the continent seems to be an important division between the dynamic coast and the ice sheet further towards the South Pole, which varies much less in thickness.
This article appears courtesy of Gemini News and may be found in its original form here.
The opinions expressed herein are the author's and not necessarily those of The Maritime Executive.
Alaska to Study Fishing in Protected Arctic Waters
A newly-built supertrawler for the Russian Far East fleet. Russia has already begun fishing a substantial pollock resource on its side of the Chukchi Sea EEZ (USC)
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) has said that it is preparing for an eventual end to the longstanding moratorium on commercial fishing in U.S. Arctic waters.
Speaking last month during the Arctic Encounter Symposium held in Anchorage, Alaska, ADF&G Commissioner Doug Vincent-Lang said his department is seeking $1 million in state funds and another $2 million in federal funds to work on research aimed at understanding sustainable fishing in the Arctic, in the event it happens there.
“As fish stocks move north around the circumpolar north - and fishing fleets from other countries follow them - Alaska should not be left out. We see opportunities for our coastal communities to develop fisheries. And we certainly do not want to be left onshore while Russia and other countries go out and fish those waters,” said Vincent-Lang, according to the Alaska Beacon.
If the funding is approved, the scientific research will identify stocks north of the Bering Strait that are capable of being developed into commercial fisheries. Thereafter, ADF&G will draft a fishery management plan, determining participants and possibly allocating shares by communities.
In 2009, the U.S government introduced the Arctic Fishery Management Plan, seeking to ban commercial fishing in over 150,000 square miles of federal waters off the Alaska Coast. This includes fishing north of the Bering Strait, Chukchi and Beaufort Seas on the U.S. side of the demarcation line with Russia. After approval by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, the ban came into force.
Federal waters protected by the 2009 Fishery Management Plan (Courtesy NPFMC)
However, Russia never issued any moratorium in its own Arctic waters, and in 2020, the Russian government opened the first commercial fishery for pollock in its sector of the Chukchi Sea.
As global oceans are warming and the ice is starting to clear in the Arctic, some fish stocks are shifting northward, a phenomenon called borealization. Some of the species migrating north include Pacific cod and pollock. In the Russian waters of Chukchi Sea, pollock stocks have been on the rise in the past few years.
Further north, in a region beyond any national jurisdiction, the Arctic is well protected from unregulated fishing. The landmark Central Arctic Ocean Fisheries Agreement entered into force in 2021, banning commercial fishing operations in the high seas zone of the Central Arctic Ocean. Parties to the agreement include Canada, China, Denmark, the EU, Iceland, Japan, Norway, Russia, South Korea and the United States. The agreement will remain in force for 16 years and extends automatically for another five years unless one party objects.
Region protected by the Central Arctic Ocean Fisheries Agreement (Courtesy Government of Canada)
No commercial fishing has ever taken place in this icebound area, but the agreement was adopted by the countries as a precautionary measure, as the region is increasingly accessible due to climate change.
In fact, Arctic fishing is one of the few areas in which the U.S and Russia have retained ties. In March, Russian government representatives participated, albeit remotely, in a meeting held in Utqiagvik, Alaska, geared towards developing a joint scientific program on Arctic fisheries.
Washington State Ferry Runs Aground Near Bremerton
On Saturday afternoon, a Washington State ferry ran aground south of Bainbridge Island, just across Puget Sound from Seattle. Nearly 600 passengers were aboard the vessel, and safe disembarkation took more than five hours.
At about 1630 hours Saturday, the ferry Walla Walla went aground in Rich Passage, a narrow and curving waterway on the route from Seattle to Bremerton. No injuries or flooding were reported.
Passengers told local media that the lights flickered and that the ship appeared to lose propulsion before the grounding. The crew alerted everyone on board to the impending casualty and began to prepare them for an emergency scenario.
“They made [an] announcement saying everyone needs to come to the passenger deck, we’ve lost steering [and propulsion] everyone needs to brace for impact, and so we were all sitting down and a little concerned," passenger Matt Holyoak told KOMO News after the casualty.
The smaller ferries Waterman and Commander, provided by Kitsap Transit, diverted to the scene and were able to pull alongside the Walla Walla so that passengers could transfer directly aboard. The last passengers disembarked at about 2200 hours, and they were all delivered safely to Bremerton.
Images courtesy USCG
The Walla Walla was safely refloated at high tide on Saturday night with tug assistance, and she was delivered to Bremerton without further incident. Passengers with cars aboard the Walla Walla were able to retrieve their vehicles at the pier in Bremerton on Sunday morning.
Initial indications suggest that the Walla Walla sustained a generator failure while under way, according to Washington State Ferries. An official investigation into the cause of the casualty is under way. The ferry Issaquah is taking over Walla Walla's route temporarily while the refloated ferry undergoes survey and repair.
Walla Walla is a Jumbo-class WSF ferry built in 1973 and refurbished in 2005. She has a diesel-electric propulsion system, powered by four independent diesel generators.
The ferry has been aground once before: in 1981, Walla Walla ran onto a beach at Wing Point, Bainbridge Island, about three miles northeast of Saturday's grounding.
The last major propulsion casualty affecting a WSF ferry occurred in 2014, when the ferry Tacoma suffered a catastrophic electrical system failure at Bainbridge's Eagle Harbor. The Tacoma was able to drop anchor and avert a grounding.
Firefighters have begun the process of knocking down the last remaining pockets of fire aboard the factory trawler Kodiak Enterprise, which caught fire at a pier in Tacoma early Saturday.
The fire burned through most of the vessel by Monday and decreased further in size on Tuesday, according to the unified command managing the response. The blaze has subsided enough that the Tacoma Fire Department green-lighted operations to access the ship's interior and begin extinguishing any remaining hot spots.
Shelter-in-place orders for downwind neighborhoods have been lifted, and air testing suggests that particulate matter is no longer a concern.
In addition, the vessel's freon refrigerant tanks have been inspected and have been found empty. The Kodiak Enterprise was carrying about 19,000 pounds of freon, and the heat of the fire was expected to cause pressure in the tanks to rise. The tanks were fitted with safety release valves, and the responders believe that they slowly vented off the tank contents into the atmosphere, without any health and safety risks.
The vessel still has a pronounced list to port, but dewatering operations are under way to restore full stability. A dive inspection on Tuesday found that the ship is intact below the waterline, dispelling earlier concerns that she might be taking on water. As a precautionary measure, the dive team plugged her water intakes.
Images courtesy USCG
A light sheen was spotted around the vessel Tuesday morning, located within the three layers of boom that responders have deployed to control any potential pollution. The sheen was too thin to recover, according to the Coast Guard, but if any larger release should occur, skimming boats and response crews are standing by.
The Kodiak Enterprise had recently returned from "A" season in the Bering Sea and was undergoing a maintenance period in Tacoma, according to her operator. Only three engineers were aboard the vessel on the night of the fire, and they were evacuated safely. Four firefighters reportedly sustained injuries during an initial attack on the fire.
The blaze aboard Kodiak Enterprise is the second to affect a Trident Seafoods fishing vessel in two years. In February 2021, the Trident fish processor Aleutian Falcon caught fire at a shipyard in Tacoma during maintenance work.
Factory Trawler Burns Out, Takes On Heavy List at Pier in Tacoma
The burned superstructure of Kodiak Enterprise at Tacoma Tidelands, April 10 (USCG)
The fire aboard the catcher-processor vessel Kodiak Enterprisehas died down, according to the U.S. Coast Guard, but the response is not finished yet. The burned-out vessel is listing heavily to port, and responders are working to figure out where the source of the flooding is coming from.
Firefighting efforts led by the Tacoma Fire Department kept the hull cooled through the three-day fire, and the agency believes that most of the flammable material on board has now burned through - including an onboard acetylene tank that exploded Saturday night (no injuries or additional damage were reported). The ship continues to emit smoke, but by early Monday, the volume had abated enough that a shelter in place order for downwind neighborhoods could be lifted.
Crews from Tacoma Fire continue to use hoses to cool the hull from the pier side and the water side as the fire burns itself out.
Images courtesy USCG
While the fire has subsided, the vessel has taken on a pronounced list to port, "more than we want it to," the response command told local King 5 News. Dewatering operations to correct the list and restore normal stability are under way, along with dive inspections to attempt to find the source of the flooding.
So far, the responders have not spotted a spill or oil sheen in the water. As a precautionary measure, the response command has deployed three layers of containment boom around the Kodiak Enterprise, and skimmers and other spill response assets are staged nearby in case they are needed.
The three crewmembers who were aboard the vessel on the night of the fire were evacuated safely. There were injuries among the first responders, however, according to King 5: four firefighters reportedly sustained injuries during an initial attack on the fire.
The fire aboard Kodiak Enterprise is the second to affect a Trident Seafoods fishing vessel in two years. In February 2021, the Trident fish processor Aleutian Falcon caught fire at a shipyard in Tacoma during maintenance work.
Shore Power Implemented at Seattle’s T5 as Union Dispute Continues
MSC's containership was the first to use the shore power connection (NWSA photos)
The Northwest Seaport Alliance marked the first use of its new shore power installation at Seattle’s Terminal 5 as part of a strategy to introduce shore power to all the international container terminals in the port. The port authority is working with Washington State and Seattle City Light on the development of the capability which however also became the center of an inter-union jurisdictional dispute during the redevelopment of the terminal.
Commissioning of the new equipment was recently completed and made available for the first time on April 10 for the MSC Brunella (8,800 TEU). The 109,800 dwt containership registered in Portugal is an eight-year-old vessel built in 2015 and operating on MSC’s California Express route. The ship sails between Vancouver, the Pacific Northwest, and along the Pacific Coast through the Panama Canal to the Mediterranean in its service.
The installation of the shore power capability involved a broad partnership and more than just installing the equipment at Terminal 5. Seattle City Light was a critical collaborator to ensure the grid and generation capability was able to support the use of shore power for the vessels.
“The Northwest Seaport Alliance is committed to reducing maritime emissions in our harbors and the launch of shore power utilization at Terminal 5 is an important milestone for our gateway,” said Sam Cho, Co-Chair of The Northwest Seaport Alliance. “We appreciate our partners, SSA Terminals, Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), Pacific Crane Maintenance Company (PCMC), and the International Longshore Workers Union (ILWU) Local 19 for working alongside the NWSA to ensure shore power is successful at Terminal 5.”
The Northwest Ports Clean Air Strategy targets the installation of the shore power infrastructure at all the international container terminals by 2030. The Husky Terminal in the South Harbor and Terminal 18 in the North Harbor as the next projects scheduled to be completed.
“We thank the Washington State Legislature for their $4.4 million investment in Terminal 5 shore power,” said Deanna Keller, Co-Chair of The Northwest Seaport Alliance Co-Chair. She noted that they look forward to expanding shore power infrastructure across all the NWSA facilities.
First use of shore power was carried on April 10 at Seattle's T5 (NWSA photo)
Terminal 5 was selected as the first to receive the equipment as part of the modernization program that began in 2019 to restore the unused facility. Operations at the north berth began in January 2022 and Phase Two of the modernization is underway with operations at the south berth expected to start in 2024. At full completion, Terminal 5 will provide 185 acres of cargo capacity.
In starting the project at Terminal 5, SSA found itself caught in an inter-union jurisdictional dispute which is ongoing and overhanging the current contract talks for the collective bargaining agreement between the Pacific Maritime Association and the International Longshore Workers Union. The dispute centers around which union should be carrying out maintenance and repair work at T5 around the shore power installation. The ILWU says under the contract the work should be assigned to members of its local while members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) have historically done this type of work at the terminal and was preferred by SSA. Last week, the National Labor Relations Board supported a decisionfor the IAM while the ILWU continues to pursue its claim in court.
NLRB Rules Against ILWU in Dispute Stemming from Automation Agreements
Seattle's Terminal 5 underwent a large modernization project (Port of Seattle file photo)
The U.S.’s National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled against the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and its local in what it terms a jurisdictional dispute over the assignment of work at Seattle’s Terminal 5. While it is a narrow issue applying to one terminal in Seattle, observers believe it could have broader implications in the ongoing collective bargaining negotiations for the master contract covering longshore work at the West Coast’s 29 seaports. The case likely was overhanging the contract negotiations.
Charged with overseeing the enforcement of U.S. labor law as well as settling these types of disputes through arbitration, the NLRB published the decision on April 6 affirming a March 2022 judge’s ruling, findings, and conclusions that rejected the arguments of the ILWU that its members should be doing certain tasks at Terminal 5.
The NLRB delegated its authority in this case to a three-member panel that after reviewing the case agreed with the judge’s ruling that the ILWU failed to establish a legitimate work-preservation defense. The ruling says that the ILWU “has engaged in unfair labor practices,” and orders the union to “cease and desist from threatening, coercing or restraining SSA Marine (operators of Terminal 5) to assign work to members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) instead of ILWU or ILWU Local 19 members.
The ILWU filed its claims in September 2020 and November 2020 arguing that the work in question under the 2019 contract had to be assigned to its members. At issue were maintenance and repair work and specifically tasks related to the use of cold ironing shore power at Terminal 5.
Commenting on the NLRB ruling, Cam Williams, ILWU Coast Committeeman, said “The ILWU is confident that the NLRB decision, which cannot go into effect without court approval, will on appeal be overturned as legally wrong. The ILWU expects that the companies signatory to its collective bargaining agreement abide by the terms of the contract they negotiated.”
The case delves into the minutia of the history of the labor agreements and how they evolved in response first to containerization and then automation. In 1978, the ILWU and Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) agreed that maintenance work on containers and cargo handling equipment would be performed by ILWU represented workers. Thirty years later in exchange for the right to automate and introduce new technologies, the PMA agreed in 2008 to assign additional maintenance and repair work to the ILWU.
Historically Terminal 5 had used IAM members until American President Lines vacated the facility in 2014. Four years later, the Northwest Seaport Alliance leased the terminal and used ILWU represented mechanics to perform a limited amount of work during the modernization of the terminal in 2018 and 2019. The IAM took action in 2019 to have the work assigned to its members with a 2020 decision finding for the IAM.
“The board concluded that the factors of employer preference, past practice, skills and training, and economic efficiency of operations favored an award of the disputed work to IAM, while the current assignment of work and job loss favored an award to ILWU represented employees.” They tempered their decision by saying the work was being awarded to employees represented by the IAM and not the IAM.
The work-preservation defense of the ILWU was rejected based on the long-held principles of the NLRB that the defense only applies when the work was previously done by the union’s employees. The board strongly rejects using the defense to expand work jurisdiction. They found that ILWU members had previously only performed the maintenance and repair work for SSA Terminals on a temporary or inconsistent basis.
The underlying issue is automation and the assignments of future work and how it is dealt with in the longshore contract. Buried within the decision of the NLRB panel is a mention that currently only three West Coast container terminals have automated or are expected to automate their equipment operations. The issue of automation is believed to be one of the most contentious points in the current contract negotiations that began in mid-2022 and are continuing.
The dispute over the work at Terminal 5 is likely to continue to wend its way through the U.S. courts. The outcome raises questions on how it might impact the ILWU’s current broader contract negotiations for all the West Coast ports.
Images courtesy USCG
