On Monday, November 24, 2014, union workers in Belgium have scheduled a protest against newly formed government policies. As union dockworkers will be among those protesting, and with the anticipation that picket lines will be blocking Port of Antwerp entrances, it is most likely that the port will not be able to operate at normal levels for that day. For the sake of planning, port officials are asking customers to consider the terminals closed for the day.
Currently, there is a great deal of confusion surrounding the congestion surcharge announcements made by ocean carriers for cargo coming into the West Coast. Unfortunately, answers are still elusive. The FMC posted a notice on Monday stating that any published tariff rule that increases costs to a shipper may not be effective until 30 days after publication. Consequently, most of the tariff rules implementing these congestion surcharges were published in May of this year.
Carriers are now announcing the implementation of congestion surcharges. The carriers filed the potential surcharges with the FMC in anticipation of labor disruption on the West Coast. As “disruption” was loosely defined, they have the legal right to implement the surcharges. The bad news is that most carriers are announcing the surcharges take effect on cargo discharging on or after November 17, 2014.
What can importers do about this?
Today, at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, port truckers from Total Transportation Services Inc (TTSI) and Pacific 9 Transportation (Pac 9) have resumed their strike protesting "severe and continuing labor violations" with the support of the Teamsters.
Currently, deliveries into the port have come to a halt. Teamsters have assembled picket lines at two terminals and will picket if company trucks attempt to enter.
According to the Journal of Commerce, productivity increased slightly this week at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach as well as Seattle and Tacoma. However, at the Port of Oakland, the situation turned sour as ILWU members walked off their jobs for the third day in a row.
Congestion is still posing a serious problem to West Coast ports as negotiations between the ILWU and PMA continue to take place. We can only hope that a resolution will come soon.
To see the full JOC article, visit their website, www.joc.com.
