JOC

Modernization of cargo-handling operations and maintaining labor peace are foremost on the minds of West Coast waterfront employers as they look ahead to the expiration of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union contract on July 1, 2014.

“It is essential that we work smartly, and well, to prepare ourselves for the changes coming in the years ahead,” James McKenna, president and CEO of the Pacific Maritime Association, stated in the just-released PMA annual report for 2012.

The annual report took a “lessons should be learned” approach to labor events of the past year. On the East and Gulf coasts, the International Longshoremen’s Association and the United States Maritime Alliance blew a Sept. 30, 2012, contract expiration deadline and required federal mediation before agreeing to a new contract earlier this month.

The PMA noted that the issues at stake in the eastern half of the country — technology, modernization and jurisdiction — were largely resolved by waterfront employers and the ILWU on the West Coast in their contract negotiations of 2002 and 2008.

“These agreements have been followed by positive results, both in terms of volume and staffing,” the PMA stated. The report noted that implementation of technology and automation have resulted in increased cargo-handling productivity, yet longshoremen also benefited in terms of higher wages and increased work opportunities.

General longshoremen working a 40-hour week in 2012 earned on average $132,946. That’s up from $125,461 in 2007, the peak year in terms of cargo volume at West Coast ports. Total payroll for longshoremen, marine clerks and foremen reached $1.5 billion last year, which was 50 percent higher than in 2002, when the landmark contract allowing for a free flow of information at West Coast ports was negotiated.

Although technology and automation are altering some dockworker jobs, modernization has not resulted in a loss of work opportunities as some had feared. In fact, the number of Class A registrants, the highest category of union dockworkers, passed 10,000 last year for the first time. The registered ILWU work force has actually increased 34 percent since the 2002 contract was signed.

The PMA did not look smugly at the labor unrest on the East and Gulf coasts this past year. Employers in Los Angeles-Long Beach suffered through a seven-day strike by the 600-member Office Clerical Unit of ILWU Local 63 whose effect was magnified when ILWU dockworkers refused to cross the OCU picket lines.

Canadian police and intelligence agencies have thwarted a plot to carry out an al-Qaeda-supported terrorist attack on a passenger train between Toronto and New York City, according to James Malizia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s assistant commissioner, in a press conference, CBC News reports.

Two suspects have been arrested and charged with terrorism-related offenses. They are expected to appear in court tomorrow.

The alleged plotters had been under surveillance for more than a year in Quebec and southern Ontario, "highly placed sources" told a CBC News reporter. The investigation was part of a cross-border operation involving Canadian law enforcement agencies, the FBI and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Law enforcement officials added that the terror suspects have no connection to the two brothers accused of last week’s Boston Marathon bombings, or the former London, Ontario, high school students who joined al-Qaeda and died earlier this year while helping to stage an attack on an Algerian gas refinery.

CenterPoint Properties Trust has acquired a single-story, 123,199-square-foot industrial building in Rancho Dominguez, Calif., an unincorporated section of Los Angeles, from Big Tree Big Sleep.

The seller uses the facility to manufacture futons, and under the terms of the transaction will continue to occupy the site on a short-term leaseback. Chicago-based CenterPoint plans to convert the facility for distribution use offering 105,000 square feet of space, which is scheduled to be completed by mid-2013.

The transaction was arranged on behalf of the buyer by Steve Bohannon, Rooney Daschbach and Rusty Smith of the Los Angeles office of Cushman & Wakefield.

“This was an off-market opportunity, with the seller continuing to pay rent while CenterPoint obtains their entitlements,” Bohannon said. “It occupies a quality corner location, and CenterPoint’s vision is to convert it to take advantage of what the South Bay market of Los Angeles needs, meeting increased demand from port-related tenants.”

Seth D. Harris, acting secretary of labor of the U.S. Department of Labor, will re-establish the charter of the Maritime Advisory Committee for Occupational Safety and Health.

The Labor Department established MACOSH in 1995 to advise the secretary of labor, through the assistant secretary of labor for occupational safety and health, on various issues related to safe and healthful working conditions in the maritime industry, including safety and health standards, injury and illness prevention, training and outreach initiatives and enforcement initiatives. Since its establishment, MACOSH has made more than 100 recommendations to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which the agency used to develop guidance products and standards.