Longshoremen to vote on proposed pay cuts

Longshoremen in the port of Hampton Roads are to vote Thursday on a local contract calling for wage reductions of up to 30 percent for handling non-containerized cargos.

The reductions also would extend to a barge service that shuttles containers between Richmond and Norfolk. The service would be expanded with stops at port terminals in Portsmouth and Newport News, offering an alternative to roads for shuttling containers within the port.

The vote comes as the Virginia Port Authority's board is poised to ratify a 20-year lease of APM Terminals' Portsmouth facility.

Shipping lines bringing containers through the authority's Portsmouth Marine Terminal will be shifted to the more modern and efficient APM facility once the lease takes effect. That will free up the Portsmouth terminal to handle other types of cargos, particularly "break-bulk" cargos that are packed in bales, drums or crates, or on pallets.

The Virginia Port Authority ceded many such shipments to other ports such as Baltimore as it focused its growth on container traffic in recent decades.

The new contract would put more longshoremen back to work, many of whom have been sidelined during the recent economic downturn, port officials said. The wage concessions are needed to compete with other ports on the East Coast, they added.

"I see this as a critical vote for the future of this port," said Joseph A. Dorto, president and CEO of Virginia International Terminals Inc., the tax-exempt operating affiliate of the Port Authority. "It's not just for business, it's for ILA jobs."

The port's top labor official said Friday that he supported the proposed contract.

"Yes, I do," said Thomas Little, acting international vice president of the International Longshoremen's Association for the port of Hampton Roads. "What we're trying to do is attract more break-bulk cargo to the port."

The contract would affect all eight ILA locals and between 1,600 and 1,800 workers, Little added.

The handling of containerized cargo in ports from Maine to Texas is covered by a master contract negotiated by the ILA with port and shipping line management. Terms for the handling of bulk and break-bulk cargo is a local matter.

Comparable contract terms to those proposed in Hampton Roads already are in place for break-bulk work at competing ports such as Charleston, S.C.; Savannah, Ga.; and Philadelphia, said Roger Giesinger, president of the Hampton Roads Shipping Association, which represents the port's employers of ILA labor.

"We have 400 ILA members that have worked 100 or less hours for the year," Giesinger said. "We want to put them back to work, and the only way to do this on break-bulk is to be competitive."

The contract package also would affect ILA workers handling containers on barges.

If the proposed contract is approved, Dorto said, a weekly barge service now ferrying containers between Hampton Roads and the port of Richmond would be expanded to a daily round-trip service that could include stops at

Newport News Marine Terminal, APM Terminals and Norfolk International Terminals.

"What we need is some reductions from the ILA in manning and wages," Dorto said.

If demand grew, more barges could be added to the service, resulting in an inner-harbor container shuttle between terminals, he said.

The contract includes a provision for a renegotiation on the barge-service work if larger vessels end up being used, he added.

Little declined to comment further on the proposed contract.

"I just hope it passes," he said.

Robert McCabe, (757) 446-2327, robert.mccabe@pilotonline.com