Disclaimer

The articles excerpted on this site report on the state of the industry as seen by mainstream media, and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the officers of the ILWU Coast Longshore Division.

Farmers push to add Japan in trade talks as US automakers balk

Japanese farmers protest against the Trans-Pacific Partnership in Tokyo. Their banner reads: ‘We absolutely oppose Japan’s participation to TPP.’

Farmers in the US are pushing for Japan to join the 11-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership as a way to gain access to the world’s third-largest economy as automakers seek to exclude the Asian nation until it [...]

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Hanjin not building $300 million Jaxport terminal

Hanjin Shipping Company Ltd. will not be building a $300 million container shipping terminal at the Port of Jacksonville, Jacksonville Port Authority Interim CEO Roy Schleicher said Thursday morning.

Weakness in the economy caused the project’s demise, not the 47-foot dredging depth planned for the St. Johns River shipping channel, which Jaxport voted to pursue [...]

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Port of Grays Harbor Receives Award for Soybean Export

KXRO reports the increased export activity created more than one hundred FTE longshore jobs for handling the cargo.

Port of Grays Harbor Commissioner, Jack Thompson, and Executive Director, Gary Nelson were in Minnesota to receive Minnesota Soybean’s 2012 International Marketing Committee Partner of the Year Award.

Minnesota Soybean, which represents more than 25,000 soybean farmers [...]

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Counterfeit gas could harm reefer sector for another five years

Last year, several refrigerated containers exploded due to contaminated refigerant. Workers were killed in Vietnam and Brazil.

First it was trademark designer watches, clothing and Hollywood films burned onto DVDs, but now the massive trade in counterfeit goods has moved onto the shipping industry itself, with a profusion of fake gases used in servicing reefer [...]

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Protesters Seek Openness at Pacific-Region Trade Pact Talks

Transparency has become an issue of the Pacific-region talks, with consumer, labor and environmental groups siding with some U.S. lawmakers who want participants to make their positions public.

Dozens of groups including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and International Brotherhood of Teamsters met with negotiators during Pacific-region trade talks in Leesburg, Virginia, as protesters called [...]

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Maersk CEO warns of Chinese challenges

”It is obvious that China will become less competitive in some areas” Maersk Executive Søren Skou says, according to the Wall Street Journal, adding that China is the most important market for the shipping giant and that it is increasingly felt that the manufacturing of goods, such as shoes and toys, is gradually being relocated [...]

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APM’s Vietnam Terminal Expects 600,000 Containers This Year

Cai Mep International Terminal, Vietnam

Cai Mep International Terminal will handle close to 600,000 20-foot equivalent units in 2012, representing 50 percent of the containers moving through the Vietnamese port which has five other terminals.

The terminal is internationally competitive after only one year of operations, according to APM Terminals, the A.P. Moller-Maersk port [...]

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Pacific Trade Talks Extend Invites to Canada, Mexico

A proposed Pacific trade region may capture an additional $3 trillion in economic output after Canada and Mexico were invited to take part in talks with nine other nations.

A final deal that includes Canada and Mexico would create the U.S.’s largest trade accord, linking its North American Free Trade Agreement partners with eight Pacific-region [...]

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U.S. Hasn’t Decided on Expanding Pacific Talks, Obama Aide Says

The Obama administration hasn’t made a decision about adding Japan, Mexico and Canada to a Pacific-region trade accord being negotiated by nine nations, a top economic adviser to President Barack Obama said.

The Pacific agreement, a trade priority for Obama, includes Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the U.S. and Vietnam. Japan, Mexico, [...]

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River terminal moving grain despite fire, labor trouble

EGT, Port of Longview

In the four months since the EGT grain terminal resolved its dispute with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, it has shipped about 1 million tons of bulk grain to Asian ports.

A fire in one of the facility’s three conveyor towers in early April halted operations for one day and [...]

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Charleston port announces third new shipping service of the year

A shipping alliance will begin calling on the Port of Charleston in June, linking the port to countries in Asia and North Africa, the S.C. State Ports Authority announced recently.

For the new service, the New World Alliance and Evergreen will call weekly on Charleston, the last port of call for the outbound service.

The [...]

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Virginia to Be First Inbound Stop in New Asia Service

The Port of Virginia will gain a “first-in” vessel call in June when MOL will begin making weekly calls at Norfolk International Terminals with its new all-water service between the Far East and the U.S. East Coast via the Suez Canal.

The announcement of the new MOL call comes on top of two other moves [...]

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Mexico’s secretary of economy: We deserve a seat at trade table

The following opinion piece was published in the Dallas Morning News on behalf of Bruno Ferrari García de Alba, Mexico’s secretary of economy:

Bruno Ferrari de Alba says the United States should take the lead to give Mexico a seat at the Trans-Pacific Partnership table.

While governments and the public have been concentrating on challenges [...]

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ILWU at EGT terminal: ‘Moving in the right direction and doing what we do best — loading and unloading ships’

Almost seven months ago, on July 11, 2011 about a hundred ILWU longshore workers were loaded into Cowlitz County law enforcement vans and arrested after taking action to protect their jobs at EGT. On February 7, 2012, ILWU Local 21 loaded EGT's first ship, signaling another positive step forward after a long and difficult [...]

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New safety protocol keeps refrigerated goods moving through Port of Oakland

The Oakland Tribune has detailed the safety procedures that longshore workers fought for to protect workers and the community from potentially explosive containers that were serviced in Vietnam with counterfeit coolant:

A handful of clerks from ILWU Local 34 and two mechanics have been working practically nonstop inside a second-floor room at the Pacific Marine [...]

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