Tag Archives: labor relations

First European-owned vessel recycled at yard in the US

Posted on April 26, 2022 by | 1 comment

Seatrade reports that a European-owned vessel is in the US for shipbreaking. International Shipbreaking Limited (ISL) has invested a lot in bringing shipbreaking yards up to international standards for compliance with shipbreaking rules.

It’s a great advance to have compliant yards available and ready to recycle ships.

The abuse of labor in third-world ship recycling facilities is well known. True, it’s not perceived there as abuse. But the absence of safety standards for ship recycling workers, and payment by piece work, encourages unsafe behavior, and also unsustainable behavior by shipowners. These should stop. The EU regulation is a good first move, and having a place to do it is valuable.

Perhaps the next step is to have complaint yards for recycling empty containers in importing nations. Since it’s more expensive to ship them back than to buy new ones in China, it makes sense to salvage the metal here and also do away with the storage problem.

Seatrade logo

Marcus Hand | Apr 26, 2022

First European-owned vessel recycled at yard in the US

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Posted in Logistics, Shipping, Sustainability

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Truck driver pay hurt by 84-year-old law

Posted on April 22, 2022 by | 1 comment

Truck drivers can’t get overtime pay, according to a US law. The law is old, and was passed to meet a need when trucking was regulated. with the shortage of drivers today, shouldn’t we look at allowing overtime pay?

Doing so would probably increase some drivers’ take-home. It might also induce trucking firms to reduce the service level, on the grounds that they won’t pay the extra for overtime. That would mean we would need even more drivers to handle the loads we need to. Or cargo would not move.

Fairness to people seems to warrant allowing overtime wages for truckers. That could be a social objective we’d like to see met. It’s fair also to look at what the flow of goods might look like if overtime were paid. That is harder, because we don’t know how firms would execute on the rule as they try to handle the consigned loads. It might be better to not pay overtime and try to outsource loads to independent operators on a piecework basis.

The effect would probably include a lot more outsourcing to owner-operators. And with all the controversy today about what owner-operators are owed in terms of benefits and work rules, more controversy and confusion could erupt.

Rachel Premack Thursday, April 21, 2022

Truck driver pay hurt by 84-year-old law

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Posted in Labor Economics, Logistics, Trucking

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New York approaches biggest US container port title as west coast imports flatline

Posted on January 24, 2022 by | Leave a comment

Why are people choosing New York/New Jersey to import containers?

One concern is the congestion and delay, averaging 18 days according to the article, at the West Coast ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Apparently throughput has reached a max there, and is unlikely to improve much.

Actually, ‘approaches’ is a good word. New York’s throughput is still below Los Angeles, by 411,000 to 417,000. But the trend in LA is down, markedly, and the trend in NY is up, so maybe a switch will happen soon. LA doesn’t have many short-term options for improving throughput.

Another concern of shippers is the possibility of labor actions on the West Coast. Historically, longshoreman unions and port terminal representatives have been confrontational on the West Coast. Since the ports are biggest, strikes there or slowdowns would have a serious effect on commerce. and that’s the point of strikes and slowdowns– to bring maximum pressure on the port and terminal representatives to make concessions. It is likely that there will be some kerfuffle. But it’s not clear that anyone wants a total stoppage or serious constriction of traffic. And it’s a major political nightmare too. Presidents in the past have declared states of emergency to keep people at work and the cargo moving. So I think something will be worked out.

When will New York/New Jersey reach its congestion threshhold, and ships start backing up?

It could be good news that the flush of demand for imports may be abating a bit as shippers think through how to realign their supply needs to reduce the pressure on their supply chains. More regular and predictable supply may be the outcome.

By Mike Wackett 24/01/2022

New York nudges biggest US container port title as west coast imports flatline – The Loadstar
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Posted in Labor Economics, Logistics, Ports, Shipping, Supply Chains

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