Skills shortage clogs up Port of LA

ALAN PEAT THE PORT of Los Angeles appears to have worked itself into a labour skills corner, and congestion is already delaying ships and cargoes. Since July 1, Hellmann Worldwide Logistics’ Debbie Nortje told FTW, there has been a serious backlog of vessels waiting to get into the port. “There is no quick solution to this problem,” she said, “and it is likely to be around for some time.” The problem is a sudden surge in the numbers of unskilled “casuals” being employed by various waterfront employers. After putting more than 1 000 new longshoremen to work in recent times at the Port of Los Angeles, the largest container complex in the US, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) has also presented a proposal to the Pacific Maritime Association to immediately promote 2 000 part-time casuals to registered status - and to add 11 000 new casuals to the rolls within eight weeks. “The problem in a nutshell is that the volumes through the port have grown to such an extent that casuals cannot be trained quick enough,” said Nortje. “Employers and the union have agreed to take on 2 000 more casuals but employers insist on testing and training only 60 casuals each week - which means it would take two years to prepare all 2 000 casuals for dock work.” As this crisis continues, she added, it is projected that the port will more than double its cargo volumes by 2020. But it should fortunately not prove a crisis for SA shippers and importers, according to two other senior FTW contacts in the shipping and forwarding fields. It’s a bit of a roundabout route for cargoes between this US western coast port and SA, according to a shipping line’s US trade specialist, with lots of transhipment hubs having to come into play en-route. “Most of the problem is going to be for trans-Pacific trade,” he said, “as most SA cargo movement with the west coast is road hauled across the US to-or-from east coast ports - not shipped through LA.” One of the country’s leading forwarding executives was of much the same opinion. “If you’re talking about SA cargoes heading for Los Angeles, I’d think that only bulk cargoes - like coal, minerals and the like - would head in that direction by charter vessels. “But for SA containerised cargo - either import or export - I’d say that there’s no significant amount shipped through the US port.”