Hughes asserts ILA's place in short sea shipping

Richard P. Hughes, the International Longshoremen's Association president, affirmed his union will be included in any short sea service on the U.S. East and Gulf coasts.

Hughes referred to recent comments that U.S. short sea shipping could not be successful with organized labor involved in the work. 

If that's their opinion, the ILA surely takes the position that we should have employee-owned operations thereby eliminating management and saving money, Hughes told attendees at the Virginia Maritime Association's International Trade Symposium in Norfolk on Thursday. 

I'm certain that if new methods of bringing work here to the Port of Hampton Roads, like short sea shipping for example, are developed, we can be sure that (the ILA) and the employers will seize those opportunities and negotiate agreements that are beneficial to, and include, the ILA, he said.

Working with unions to create a viable (short sea) model is our goal, said Scott Fernandez, vice president of coastwise shipping for Horizon Lines, a proponent of developing U.S. short sea shipping. 

Kevin Mack, vice president of business development of Columbia Coastal Group, said both liner carriers and the ILA work with the 19-year-old container-on-barge service in a collaborative way.

When Columbia Coastal wanted to begin a service between Savannah, Ga. and Miami in 1993, the carrier successfully negotiated a collective bargaining agreement with the ILA's South Atlantic and Gulf Coast District. The agreement remains part of the ILA's master contract.

Source: American Shipper