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Maersk renegotiation could create national labor dispute |
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Monday, 13 October 2008 |
By Molly Parker
SCBIZ Daily Staff
CHARLESTON -- Maersk Lines’ attempt to rewrite its contract with the S.C. State Ports Authority is threatening to dust up a labor dispute that could span the East Coast.
Grappling with budget woes, the Denmark-based shipping line, the world’s largest, has been in negotiations for the past year with the SPA, seeking a reprieve from its current five-year license agreement, which expires in 2010. Maersk accounts for almost a quarter of the SPA’s container business, making it the largest shipping line calling on the port. If the company stopped calling on the Port of Charleston, the Lowcountry economy would see major financial impacts.
One option SPA executives have offered is to move Maersk to a “common user gate” utilizing SPA employees. Maersk is a licensed private operator on the Wando Welch Terminal, and its labor is supplied by the International Longshoremen’s Association, according to an international labor agreement.
SPA Chief Executive Bernard Groseclose said Maersk indicated it prefers this option over the SPA’s other offer, which is to shrink the space and take back some of the equipment the authority provided Maersk under its license agreement.
But ILA Local 1422 President Ken Riley said his organization would fight any move that would take away union jobs. If Maersk moves to a common user gate, it would eliminate roughly 50 ILA positions, including seven longshoremen’s jobs, Riley said.
“It also would be in violation of an international contract,” Riley said. “This is a national law. It would actually jeopardize the relationships between Maersk and the ILA up and down the coast.”
The Post and Courier broke the story today about the ongoing negotiations between the SPA and Maersk. The article quotes e-mail from company executives saying that Maersk executives are in discussions with the ILA local about moving toward the common user gate option.
Reached Friday morning, a spokesman for Maersk declined to supply a copy of that e-mail or answer further questions, saying executives were meeting at 3 p.m. today to decide how to deal with the now-public dispute.
Meanwhile, Riley said Maersk officials indicated to him that they have no desire to move toward the common gate option. The company feels that the SPA has backed it into a corner, Riley said. The problem could be solved, he added, if the SPA agreed to lift the fees that are charged to Maersk for not hitting pre-established volume numbers.
“I’m telling you that’s not going to happen and that’s not a true story,” Riley said.
Groseclose, while declining to discuss the particulars of its offers to Maersk, denied that the dispute had anything to do with an attempt to squeeze labor further from the operation.
“We’re clearly not doing that,” he said. “That’s why we offered Maersk two proposals, both with the intent to extend their time in the Port of Charleston, and extend their business, and grow their business.”
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