Excerpts from ‘Who will head Long Beach’s port?’ in the Press-Telegram:

This week the board running the Long Beach port interviewed seven finalists in hopes of finding the nation’s second-busiest container port’s next CEO. … One of the largest players is the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, the union representing dockworkers.

“We want the next executive officer to understand where the ILWU is coming from,” said Paul Trani, president of the ILWU Local 63 representing about 1100 marine clerks.

The union has been fending off efforts to expand automatization in the name of greening the ports, since much of the new equipment comes alongside robotic equipment.

“We just want to make sure that there is no taxpayer money going toward purchasing robotics and automation,” he said. “We don’t want taxpayer money used to eliminate American jobs and stop the growth of good middle class jobs.”

Read the full article at the Press-Telegram