When President Obama talks about infrastructure projects the Republicans will mostly blame Labor. They aren't the problem.

November 4, 2014

By Hannah Madans 

...Labor disputes (click here)

Much has been written about the ongoing contract negotiation for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, the union representing port workers.

Since May, the group has been working without a contract while negotiating a new one with the Pacific Maritime Association. The groups have tentatively come to an agreement on health care, but still have other issues to work out, according to Craig Merrilees, communications director at the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.

Klaskow said the impact of the disputes on the port was likely minimal. “It’s hard to prove an impact on the port, but obviously it’s not good for morale and that affects productivity, so it’s not helping things,” he said....

Our sea ports are lacking any improvements in their infrastructure. The ports are backed for days already.

Improving economy
Cited as number one problem is the USA growing economy. The growth is out pacing the USA infrastructure.

Truck Surcharges

...Fred Johring, the president of Golden State Express and the chairman at the Harbor Trucking Association of Southern California, said the time it takes for truckers to get into the port, load cargo and get out can be 30 minutes to six hours.

“It’s ridiculous, but we can’t get around it,” he said.

Several years ago, 12-14 percent of transactions took more than two hours, Johring said, but in October, 31 percent of port visits took more than two hours, and 4 percent took more than four hours....

Chassis fiasco
...Starting in February, the system should improve for truckers as four independent companies have agreed to pool the chassis for everyone to use, said Phillip Sanfield, a spokesman at the Port of Los Angeles.

Big Ships Waiting

...Some ships are “slow steaming,” or crossing the Pacific more slowly, in a way that saves fuel. Still, a slow Pacific crossing doesn’t make up for the money lost by being able to take fewer rotations....

...The port is also handling larger vessels than ever before to reduce the slot cost, or cost per container, Klaskow said. These ships take longer to unload, which is also causing congestion.

Slow steaming may or may not be able to change. The oceans are far more rough to cross with ocean turbulence caused by high velocity winds. Those waves also cause loss of cargo from these super-vessels. And the back is effected by the size of the ships and the number of containers. 

Hiring more Long Shoremen might help, but, before that occurs the ports need to be sure the new hires will have dock space to work on. Perhaps the ships need specific areas to unload based on size and number of containers. In other words, if smaller ships can be accommodated at a separate facility away from the larger ships it would increase the incomes of the ports and provide added jobs for the region.

Holiday Stock
The end of year holidays do provide for much more merchandise coming into the USA. 

Now that I am thinking about it, the global community in general is not seeing large economic or speedy economic recoveries. This might be part of the problem. The slower the USA unloads ships and loads them again for their return trip, the slower the global markets will be.

And when truckers get back to the ports with empty containers, they have to wait again and find new chassis, and the slowdown cycle starts over again.

Klaskow expects some of the congestion to decrease after the holiday season, but said that the ports still have “major improvements to make.”

Democratic Rep. Alan Lowenthal in the 47th District is pushing for a national freight tax that would improve the roads surrounding the ports.

“The solutions being worked on are not going to ameliorate the problems overnight and will likely take weeks or months to achieve the desired effect,” Lowenthal told the Register in a statement.