Tuesday, September 4, 2012

With port strikes looming, Maine businesses plan for the worst


Source: Bangor Daily News
Whit Richardson
Friday, August 31, 2012

The union that represents dock workers at East Coast ports, including Portland's, is threatening to strike if it's not successful in renegotiating its contract with port operators.

A strike could impact several Maine businesses and produce a ripple effect throughout the state's economy.

The recent round of negotiations between the International Longshoremen's Association and the U.S. Maritime Alliance, which represents container carriers and port operators in the negotiations - including Port Americas, which operates the Portland Marine Terminal - broke down last week. No new talks are scheduled, both sides told the Associated Press. The current contract expires at the end of September.

Meanwhile, the ILA chapter at the Port of New York and New Jersey, the East Coast's busiest port, authorized a strike on Tuesday if the contract deal isn't reached, according to the AP.

The Portland Marine Terminal handles between 3,000 and 5,000 containers a year, on average, Jack Humeniuk, the ILA's representative in Portland and an employee of Port Americas, told the Bangor Daily News. There are 45 members in Portland's ILA chapter, he said.

But it's not just a disruption of container service in Portland that would impact Maine businesses. A strike at ports in New York, Newark, Baltimore, Philadelphia and other East Coast ports would disrupt the entire nation's supply chain and create a ripple effect throughout the economy.

Another user of Portland's container service is White Rock Distilleries, the Lewiston liquor company purchased last year by Beam Inc., the producer of Jim Beam bourbon. It receives raw vodka from France at its Lewiston facility and ships out cases of Pinnacle brand vodka.

"We're definitely monitoring the situation," said Paula Erickson, a spokeswoman for Beam Inc., "and we definitely have contingency plans in place if something should occur in terms of a strike or disruption at the ports."

Shifting supply chains and seeking alternative shipping routes would increase costs for White Rock, which employs more than 150 people, but that would be a secondary consideration, Erickson said. The company's "No. 1 priority" would be to ensure 100 percent uninterrupted production and shipment of the company's product.

While no new negotiations between the ILA and the U.S. Maritime Alliance are scheduled, Humeniuk expects the parties will sit back down together. "If [the issues] get solved, they're not going to get solved until the 11th hour," he said. "Unfortunately for shippers, it's uncomfortable because you don't know what to do, but that's the nature of the beast."

If a strike or lockout did occur, Humeniuk expects it would be "very short-lived" because the economic impact would be so dramatic that President Barack Obama would likely get involved.

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