Charleston seeks to keep Maersk at port

 South Carolina Ports Authority officials met with state legislators, Maersk Line executives, and union executives on Monday in an attempt to convince the Danish carrier to continue to call at the Port of Charleston.

   Maersk said last week that it planned to end a quarter of its sailings to the port early next year and stop calling Charleston altogether by the end of 2010, but a spokesman said the port was hopeful that a solution can be found to keep Maersk in Charleston. The port authority said last week that Maersk had approached it several months ago, seeking to reduce its operating costs, and that it proposed that the carrier either reduce its footprint at the terminal and turn back equipment or stop having members of the International Longshoremen's Association employed by Maersk's APM stevedoring affiliate to man the gates used by trucks coming to and leaving the terminal and switch to a common user gate facility?that employs non-union state workers at the gates.

   Maersk tried to get the union to agree to let it use the common user gate operation, but ILA members in the port unanimously rejected the plan which ILA Local 1422 President Ken Riley said would have required the union to give up jurisdiction under its contract.

   By the time we were brought in, we were brought in with an ultimatum. Either we would agree to what was on the table or they will leave. When it came to us, there was no room for negotiation, he said.

   Riley said he was hopeful that another meeting on the situation would be held by the end of the year and that wharleston will try to do something creative to accommodate Maersk. But the ultimate decision remains with them, whether they will accept any type of arrangement other than what was on the table, which simply cannot happen. It cautiously optimistic. Riley said that if Maersk moves operations to any other port in America they will be exposed to more union labor than they are exposed to in Charleston, where he says the company has the flexibility to hire only as many workers as it needs.

   Throughout the terminals in Charleston, state workers operate both ship-to-shore container gantry cranes and yard stacking equipment. But Riley said in nearby Savannah, ILA members operate the gates and south of Savannah and north of Wilmington, North Carolina, ILA members perform nearly all the jobs throughout marine terminals.

   Time is of the essence, Riley said. Shippers are concerned about getting their goods to get where they need to go. If the shipping point is Charleston and they are presently sailing on Maersk and Maersk is saying they are pulling out, then customers begin to look for other options. 

   By fear is that if the train gets too far down the track then it is too late to do anything, he said.

Source: American Shipper