HANJIN LEAVING PORTLAND
In the ’70s – back when there were lots of longshore jobs – ILWU guys were getting market-rate wages. As ports began to containerize those jobs started disappearing and that’s when the labor disputes began. Instead of fighting the containerization and job loss – a fight they knew they couldn’t win – the ILWU just asked for more money, which it knew the shippers could afford. Over time that meant that there’d be far fewer port workers getting paid far more money. This is a ma…rket distortion, and as such, it could not go on forever.
commentary by David Preston
As a result of modernization and a shrinking workforce, shippers like Hanjin can now relocate to any number of West Coast ports with minimal impact to their bottom line. Theoretically, the ILWU could counteract the shippers’ power to move by getting the port cities on their side and insisting that contract terms be enforced rigorously wherever Hanjin goes. But that doesn’t take into account the cities’ real interests. When a huge company like Hanjin weighs anchor and blames it on the union, that creates a wave of animosity toward the union that ripples all over the West Coast. Not only will Portland lose jobs when Hanjin leaves, it will lose a huge chunk of tax revenue, and those jobs and tax revenue will now go to Vancouver, Canada or some other port that has been more accommodating to Hanjin and less accommodating to the ILWU.
With so much money to spend and so many ports to choose from, shippers like Hanjin are in an excellent position to play port cities off against each other to get sweetheart deals. The ILWU, with its shrinking membership force, it ridiculously outsized salaries, and its reputation for disruptive port shutdowns, will be on the defensive from here on out.
The freedom of shippers and dock workers to bargain on an equal footing among themselves over pay and working conditions is called capitalism.
The problem is in the word “freedom.”