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Did you know cargo insurance is unregulated and no two policies are the same? Did you also know that the WSSA cargo insurance policy has some of the broadest coverage available? We will provide an in-depth analysis of coverage including required clauses and pitfalls to look out for in the policies of your trading partners.

The trucker's union in France has gone on strike and completely blocked access to the freight area in Bordeaux, Bruges. Since early this morning no truck or container has been able to get in or out.

Following the Christmas and New Year's holidays, the congestion on the West Coast has continued to get worse through every facet of the supply chain. All West Coast ports are feeling the impact from Seattle/Tacoma down to Los Angeles/Long Beach. It is common for ships to remain at anchor for days waiting for their containers to be unloaded.

The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) has announced that the ILWU and PMA have jointly requested federal mediation regarding the contract negotiations on the West Coast. This announcement represents an immediate step toward achieving a contract solution. While the FMCS has been successful in helping to resolve past labor disputes, it should be noted that they cannot impose a solution on the two parties. The hope is that both sides are genuinely interested in finding a resolution to the on-going conflict.

Conflict between the ILWU and the PMA continues into the New Year as each organization has initiated actions that will further exacerbate the congestion. In an effort to gain leverage over employers, the ILWU withheld a large number of skilled crane operators from their shifts. Without the crane operators, the cargo-handling operations have experienced a drastic slow down. In response, the PMA has reduced the number of night-shift workers to mitigate the amount of container build-up that would occur if the night shifts were unloading at the proper rate.