THE Port of Long Beach's executive director Mario Cordero said he's 'optimistic' that upcoming talks between dockers and their employers will be resolved without major disruption because both sides realise it's in their interests to reach a deal. The contract expires July 1.
Mr Cordero said he doesn't expect a repeat of the situation in 2014-15, when talks dragged on for months, causing shipping bottlenecks and cargo diversions, reports Bloomberg.
'There's too much at stake for either side to kind of leverage this,' he said, referring to the risk of the permanent diversion of ships from the west coast to the east coast via Panama - now that most shipping lines have had experience of this because of the Covid crisis.
Augmenting the trend way from southern California gateway ports is the knowledge that much of the cargo landed on the west coast is bound for consumer-rich, densely-populated regions east of the Mississippi Valley.
Said Mr Cordero: 'The times today require that the side sit down at the table and iron out their differences in a reasonable period of time.'
Talks to hammer out a new labour contract are set to begin in May for about 22,000 west coast dockers of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union - and the ocean carriers and port operators, represented by the Pacific Maritime Association.
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Mr Cordero said he doesn't expect a repeat of the situation in 2014-15, when talks dragged on for months, causing shipping bottlenecks and cargo diversions, reports Bloomberg.
'There's too much at stake for either side to kind of leverage this,' he said, referring to the risk of the permanent diversion of ships from the west coast to the east coast via Panama - now that most shipping lines have had experience of this because of the Covid crisis.
Augmenting the trend way from southern California gateway ports is the knowledge that much of the cargo landed on the west coast is bound for consumer-rich, densely-populated regions east of the Mississippi Valley.
Said Mr Cordero: 'The times today require that the side sit down at the table and iron out their differences in a reasonable period of time.'
Talks to hammer out a new labour contract are set to begin in May for about 22,000 west coast dockers of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union - and the ocean carriers and port operators, represented by the Pacific Maritime Association.
SeaNews Turkey
