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JERSEY CITY
— Some 27,000 longs****men worked the region’s docks before the use of bus-sized, steel containers revolutionized the shipping trade in the mid 1960s.

The number of local longs****man has since dwindled to about 3,500.

Now, shipping’s latest technological revolution is coming to the region, with plans for an automated terminal on the Jersey City-Bayonne border that will not require a human hand for part of the process of stacking the bus-sized shipping containers, which come from China and elsewhere bearing everything from toothpaste to Christmas lights.

Global Container Terminals plans to create the region’s first automated port at its existing location on the Port Jersey peninsula. It is part of a $312 million expansion that Global agreed to under a deal announced in June 2010 by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

And to no one’s surprise, it’s not going over well with the International Longs****men’s Association, the powerful union that represents Global employees and other dockworkers.

About 150 members from area ILA Locals conducted a rally Friday outside Global’s offices to protest what they feel is a serious threat to their long-term job and benefits security.

"We want to let everyone know that we’re here to protect our jobs and our members," said Stephen Knott, general vice president of the ILA.

"We helped build these companies. We went along with containerization. Now that they want automation. We want to make sure that we’re as much a part of it as possible and that any new jobs created are ILA jobs. That’s very, very important to us."

The term "automated-port" is somewhat of misnomer, in that all ship-to-s**** cranes are still operated by a human being, said Joe Harris, a spokesman for the Virginia Port Authority. It runs the nation’s only automated port, a facility built by the parent of the Maersk shipping line that opened in Portsmouth, Va., in 2007.

The automated portion involves a separate crane involved in the transfer of containers between truck chassis and stacks of containers, though even a significant portion of that is still controlled by a human being from a remote location, Harris said.

All the same, the combination of automated and manual crane operation results in a much faster transfer, Harris said. For example, the Portsmouth terminal operates at a rate of 45 container-moves per hour, compared with an nationwide average of 35 to 38 moves.

"It’s a highly efficient terminal," Harris said.

Industry officials said the Jersey City terminal would be similarly automated.

But automation is anathema to the ILA, and there was no mention of automating the expanded terminal in Jersey City when the expansion was announced by the Port Authority 18 months ago.

 

ILA union members rally at Jersey City port terminalSeveral members of the International Longs****men's Association (ILA) of New York and New Jersey held a lunchtime rally outside the offices of Global Terminals in Bayonne on Friday to express concern over the company's scheduled plan for expansion at the port. Virgil Maldonado, president of ILA Local 1588, said the union has received no information from company management and that implementation of new technology without union input could result in the loss of more than 250 union jobs within the next few years.

 

In the announcement, the Port Authority said it would purchase Global’s 98-acre site and lease i back to Global, which is based in Vancouver, Canada. The agency also said it would provide up to $150 million in financing for the expansion.

Global declined to comment at the time. And Friday, James Devine, the executive in charge of the company’s Jersey City facility, did not return a call seeking comment.

But on Nov. 23, Devine sent a letter to longs****men’s’ union president, Harold Daggett, confirming plans to automate the terminal.

"This letter is being sent to you because the planned expansion will include the introduction of new technology throughout the expanded Global terminal," the letter stated. "As we explained when we met in July with you and representatives from ILA Locals, the expanded terminal will incorporate a state-of-the-art terminal-operating system with enhanced container equipment as well as new cranes."

Dennis Daggett, president of the ILA’s Atlantic Coast District , said it was his opinion that Global has "an agenda to displace jobs."

"We’re concerned because we weren’t part of discussions between the Port Authority and Global Terminals," he said. "We have good, family-sustaining jobs that we fought for and maintained for generations and today those are hard things to come by."

There was no indication of the automation project’s timeframe either in the Port Authority’s 2010 announcement of the expansion project or the company’s letter to the union.

But word of the automation plans comes as the ILA and the shipping industry prepare to begin negotiations on a new master contract covering longs****men and their employers, including Global, from Maine to Texas.

At Friday’s rally, protest signs accused the Port Authority of helping to kill port jobs by financing Global’s plan.

"We’re totally opposed to the automated terminal," said ILA spokesman Jim McNamara. "Gov. Christie should be made aware that the Port Authority is making deals that would eliminate jobs."

A Port Authority spokesman, Steve Coleman, declined to comment on the allegation, insisting the matter was between Global and the ILA.

Experts said automation is more popular among ports in Asia and Europe, particularly Rotterdam, the huge Dutch shipping hub.

"This is a relatively new phenomena for the U.S.," said Aaron Ellis, a spokesman for the Association of Port Authorities in Alexandria, Va.

Page Siplon, executive director of the George Center of Innovation for Logistics, said automation allows terminals to stack containers in more dense configurations, a capability consistent with the goal of expanding capacity at the Jersey City terminal without also expanding the footprint.

"Density is an important piece of the equation," Siplon said.


Even with the increase in efficiency, Siplon said private terminal operators may be reluctant to automate due to the high capital costs involved, a situation apparently addressed by the Port Authority’s willingness to help finance the Global project.

And as in Global’s case, U.S. terminals face strong opposition to automation from the longs****men’s union. "There’s also labor issues involved."

But Virgil Maldonado, President of ILA Local 1588 in Bayonne, said he has seen men lose jobs to the supposed efficiencies of machine before and the future concerns him.

"We know we have to adapt and we want to be more effective, also," he said. "But we don’t want to lose our salaries and our livelihood over it.

"We’ve lost enough with E-Z Pass and self-checkouts at every shopping center you go to. That’s a physical person that lost a job. That’s a physical person that can’t pay bills. You have no blue-collar jobs anymore. What we have, we need to fight for and keep."

Staff writer Bob Considine contributed to this<big>
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Best,

 

Good article,  the Longsh*oremen's union was against containerized freight that cut back on their laborers as far back as the sixties.  I have little but contempt for the west coast bunch.  During the

Viet Nam war they stopped shipments of ammo and other supplies that became critical.  DoD had to fly in some and ship from the east coast and gulf. 

Originally Posted by Quaildog:

Best you just told a dammm lie. The union is for it they just want details as to how many jobs will be lost so they can plan for the jobs loss. They just want info. That's all you ever present is a lying tongue.

Once again you show what an ill informed dumbazz you are...

 

Shipping Companies, Longs****men Reach Tentative Pact; Avert Strike

Originally Posted by Roland Pfalz:
Originally Posted by Quaildog:

Best you just told a dammm lie. The union is for it they just want details as to how many jobs will be lost so they can plan for the jobs loss. They just want info. That's all you ever present is a lying tongue.

Once again you show what an ill informed dumbazz you are...

 

Shipping Companies, Longs****men Reach Tentative Pact; Avert Strike

 

Tap...tap...tap? 

Quaildung? You there???

 

Chirp...???

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