Labor

Friday, May 24, 2013

   In the latest round of union talks, Cargolux has reduced its cost-savings target from $37 million for 2013 and 2014 to simply $12.5 million for next year, lowering the amount of concessions its unions would have to accept for a new collective-work agreement.    The Luxemburg-based all-cargo carrier has been in negotiations with two trade unions, Luxembourg Confederation of Christian Trade Unions and the OGBL, over a new collective-work agreement. It released an official statement r...

Thursday, May 23, 2013

   Maritime industry officials in Hampton Roads are discussing how to take advantage of the large military presence in the area to attract people leaving for civilian life to become truck drivers and help the Port of Virginia move containers to and from the docks.    The Norfolk area is home to the world's largest naval base, which supports the U.S. Atlantic Fleet. The complex also includes a major naval air station. Oceana Naval Air Station is located nearby in Virginia Beach, and th...

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

   A 7 percent wage reduction, but no major cuts to health or pension benefits are amid the details of the tentative contract between less-than-truckload carrier ABF and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters released in anticipation of a union-wide vote on the proposal.    The IBT negotiating committee has approved the deal, but union members will receive contract ballots on June 3.    The two parties reached a five-year agreement in early May after two, month-long con...

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

   The Truckload Carriers Association and Truckers Against Trafficking have teamed up to educate and train truckers on how to recognize and report sex trafficking, a crime that has been reported in every U.S. state.     TCA will now start giving tests to truckers around the country so they can become a Certified Trucker Against Trafficking. The test is being given without any costs to the trucker and is based on a video viewable here .    The organization will also pro...

Friday, May 17, 2013

   A group of investors and stakeholders from more than 115 organizations have banded together under the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility to ask global shippers to ensure the safety and welfare of their workers and to ferret out supply chain abuses.    The group has called on shippers around the world to implement International Labor Organization standards at all their facilities and to pay attention to the United Nation’s framework on human rights responsibilities in bus...

Friday, May 17, 2013

   The U.S. Export-Import Bank has authorized an approximately $500 million direct loan to finance the continued development of a Mongolian mine that, upon completion, will generate about 30 percent of the Mongolian GDP.    Additionally, Ex-Im Bank's financing will support about 2,000 U.S. jobs across the United States, according to bank estimates derived from Commerce and Labor department data.    The Oyu Tolgoi mine, which is located in the South Gobi region about 550 kil...

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

   After a year-long review of substance-impaired driving in the trucking industry, the National Transportation Safety Board has issued recommendations for reducing the legal alcohol driving limit; ramping up the use of interlock devices; and beefing up penalties for non-compliance.    According to a NTSB report, the new legal blood-alcohol limit for drivers should drop from .08 to .05.    While the American Trucking Associations commended the progress on these measure...

Monday, May 13, 2013

   YRC's proposal to acquire ABF in the middle of union negotiations is "unconscionable," according to James P. Hoffa, general president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.    The two parties reached a tentative, five-year contract agreement earlier this month after negotiating since early January, but no firm details of the contract have been officially released. According to the Teamsters for a Democratic Union, ABF was looking for a 6.5-percent wage cut and reductions i...

Monday, May 13, 2013

   Transportation Worker Identification Credentials, or TWIC cards, were described as a “joke” during hearings before the U.S. House of Representative’s Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee last week.    The hearings came as the Government Accountability Office issued a report that said  11 years after initiation of the program the Department of Homeland Security “has not demonstrated how, if at all, TWIC will improve maritime security.”    G...

Monday, May 13, 2013

   The U.S. Department of Transportation made it official Friday that the Federal Aviation Administration will not furlough air traffic controllers or close 149 low-activity control towers at small airports to meet new budget requirements following recent congressional action.    The Reducing Flight Delays Act allowed the FAA flexibility to move money from its Airport Improvement Program to the personnel account to cover $637 million in planned cuts that would have required cont...

Thursday, May 09, 2013

   While the International Brotherhood of Teamsters has put what a local union calls “a tight lid” on information about a proposed five-year contract deal with ABF, analysts are trying to figure out what a new agreement would look like.    ABF and the Teamsters started negotiations for a new contract in January and finally reached an agreement early this month. Local unions had said during the negotiations that ABF was looking for a 6.5-percent wage cut, among other concessions. The a...

Thursday, May 09, 2013

   The United States has requested consultations with Bahrain under the Labor Chapter of the U.S.-Bahrain Free Trade Agreement (FTA).    The request follows a December 2012 report by the U.S. Labor Department that highlighted labor issues stemming from Bahrain’s response to civil unrest in early 2011 in the Persian Gulf country and recommended actions to address those issues.    “Ensuring that workers in Bahrain – and in other countries – can exercise their fundamental labor...

Tuesday, May 07, 2013

   Dockworkers in Hong Kong have decided to end a 40-day strike after securing a promise of a 9.8 percent wage increase and improved working conditions.    The Union of Hong Kong Dockers (UHKD) said it had received on Monday a written confirmation jointly signed by the four contractors at Hongkong International Terminal - Everbest, Comcheung, Lem Wing and Pui Kee - via the Hong Kong Labor Department that confirms the 9.8 percent increase in the basic wage for all their employees ...

Monday, May 06, 2013

   ABF and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters have reached a tentative, five-year contract agreement.    Details of the contract have not been released because local unions have not decided whether to endorse it.    Word of a potential agreement reached local unions last week, and they were subsequently directed to not take a strike vote.    ABF and the Teamsters began talks toward a new contract in January, with the carrier demanding a 6.5-percent wage re...

Friday, May 03, 2013

   Members of the International Longshoremen’s Association's Local 1804-1 and Local 1814 have overwhelmingly voted to approve a new contract with employers represented by the Metropolitan Marine Maintenance Contractors Association.    Members voted in favor of a new six-year contract by a vote of 632-18, according to an announcement by Dennis A. Daggett, the president of Local 1804-1 and the chief negotiator for the maintenance locals. The ratification vote was held on Tuesday, April...

Friday, May 03, 2013

   A port strike at one of Hong Kong’s container terminals has dragged into its second month, as more dockworkers join the protest over what they deem inadequate pay increases.    The dockworkers have directed strikes against contractors doing work at the Hongkong International Terminals (HIT), which is part of Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH).    In the latest development, the Union of Hong Kong Dockers (UHKD) said that employees of Comcheung Ltd. at another of Hong Kong’s ter...

Monday, April 29, 2013

   Officials with the International Civil Aviation Organization are currently negotiating a new lease for their headquarters in Montreal, but another suitor has emerged.     Qatar has proposed that ICAO make Doha the permanent seat of the organization, starting in 2016.    Qatar’s offer, according to ICAO’s rules, must be considered by the organization’s 191 member states at the next assembly, which will take place on Sept. 24. Moving the organization to Qatar will req...

Friday, April 26, 2013

   UPS has reached a tentative agreement for new five-year contracts with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters covering its small package and freight businesses.    The new contracts must now be approved by UPS’ union employees. The current contract, which covers 250,000 UPS employees, expires July 31.    "These agreements are a 'win-win-win' for our people, customers and shareholders,” UPS’ chief executive officer, Scott Davis, said in a statement.  "The fact th...

Thursday, April 25, 2013

   The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration's rolling furlough of 15,000 air traffic controllers is into its fifth day and continues to slow air traffic in the United States.    Department of Transportation officials insist the workforce reductions will not compromise safety because controllers are spacing planes further apart so they can manage traffic with fewer on-duty personnel.    The trade association representing passenger carriers, as well as cargo airline...

Thursday, April 25, 2013

   British union Unite has begun preparations to strike against Menzies World Cargo’s imposition of a two-year pay freeze on its staff at London Heathrow.    The union will soon take a ballot of its members to decide if a strike is the correct action to take.    According to the union, recent talks with management broke down before the parties found a resolution. Union officials said they are ready to go back to the bargaining table.    “It beggars belief that a co...

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

   Airlines, shippers and passengers are feeling the effects of the furloughs imposed Sunday on air traffic controllers by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration as part of a budget mechanism to save $637 million by the end of the fiscal year.    The sequestration process hit all discretionary spending across the government because Republicans in Congress and the White House could not agree on alternative cuts or revenue enhancements to reduce the deficit. The Department of Transpo...

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

   Hong Kong's Labor Secretary, Matthew Cheung, met with striking dock workers on Monday and urged them to return to the negotiating table, according to the Website of Radio Television Hong Kong .    It said Cheung met with the workers for the first time since they struck in late March. The striking workers are employed by several subcontractors at Hong Kong International Terminal (HIT).    Meanwhile, Bloomberg and the news service SinoShip reported on the impact of the stri...

Monday, April 22, 2013

   ABF Freight Systems and the Teamsters, who were unable to agree to a long-term contract, have hammered out a contract extension through May 31.    The carrier had been striving for cost reductions, and though the Teamsters recognized publicly the need to reduce costs, the union representatives have not accepted any of the carrier’s offers.    “We have taken a balanced approach to the negotiations and have specifically avoided proposing the meat-axe wage and benefit ...

Monday, April 22, 2013

   Lufthansa has cancelled nearly all its European flights today due to strike actions by ver.di, a German trade union.    The airline will operate 20 of the 1,650 scheduled short-haul flights on Monday, and these flights will mostly be routed out of Berlin, where the strike actions are due to end by the middle of the afternoon. - Jon Ross

Monday, April 22, 2013

   Shippers should expect delays receiving air cargo moving through major airports in Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York after the U.S. Department of Transportation and its Federal Aviation Administration on Sunday began to furlough air traffic controllers as promised to make good on forced budget cuts that hit the entire government in March.        Critics said the Obama administration is using the reductions in air traffic control hours to...

Thursday, April 18, 2013

   Members of the U.S. Maritime Alliance (USMX), which recently negotiated a new six-year master contract with the International Longshoremen’s Association on behalf of the U.S. East and Gulf Coast dockworker employers, ratified the new contract Wednesday afternoon.    The approval came eight days after ILA members voted to ratify the contract, which covers 14,500 port works on the East and Gulf coasts.    The contract was approved by representatives from 43 container carri...

Thursday, April 18, 2013

   Local 1804-1 of the International Longshoremen's Association, which represents maintenance and repair workers in the Port of New York and New Jersey, said it has reached a tentative agreement with the Metropolitan Marine Maintenance Contractors Association (MMMCA).    Most ILA longshore and checker locals negotiate their local contract with the New York Shipping Association, while the maintenance and repair workers negotiate their contract through MMMCA.    The...

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

   Concern about whether the Transportation Security Administration will be able to efficiently handle the renewal of large numbers of Transportation Worker Identification Credentials (TWIC) expiring this year was raised Tuesday by Rep. Janice Hahn, D-Calif., at a hearing of the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee's Coast Guard and maritime transport subcommittee.    “I don’t know if I am misinformed, but I was told that we actually have no plan moving forward ...

Monday, April 15, 2013

   Radio Television Hong Kong said on its Website that "striking dockers have vowed to escalate their industrial action, if port contractors stick to their 7-percent pay offer in talks tomorrow afternoon. The decision was made at a meeting of some 300 strikers."    A news report on the broadcaster's Website said Tuesday's negotiations would be the third round of talks mediated by the Labor Department - on the 20th day of the strike over pay and working conditions.    Hong Ko...

Tuesday, April 09, 2013

   Unions representing Hong Kong dockworkers will hold talks with two contractors and mediators from Hong Kong’s Labor Department on Wednesday , according to a report from Radio Television Hong Kong .    The broadcaster’s Website said port operator Hongkong International Terminal (HIT), a subsidiary of Hutchison Port Holdings, has indicated it will sit in on the talks between workers and the contractors that employ them.    The South China Morning Post quoted an unnamed sour...

Friday, April 05, 2013

   The newspaper The Standard reported Hong Kong’s High Court has extended an injunction first obtained April 1 on striking dockworkers , barring them from entering container terminals in Kwai Chung where the port’s container terminal is located.    The paper said talks to resolve dispute failed to materialize on Thursday, and quoted Labor Party lawmaker Lee Cheuk-yan stating the strike by dockworkers, now in its ninth day, would continue, but added the divergence in views b...

Monday, April 01, 2013

   The contract between ABF Freight System and the Teamsters expired yesterday and progress toward a resolution is slow, according to analysts at Stifel Nicolaus.    All parties involved are now working under a National Master Freight Agreement for the next 30 days while talks progress.    According to reports posted on the Teamsters' Website, the most recent proposal ABF brought to the union contained a 15-percent wage cut. The union rejected that proposal. Negotiatio...

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

   With rank-and-file members of the International Longshoremen’s Association scheduled to vote on April 9 on whether to ratify a new six-year contract negotiated by the union’s leadership with employers represented by the U.S. Maritime Alliance (USMX), the union said its President Harold J. Daggett is planning an overseas expansion and making the union “a national and global force.”    In a press release issued by the dockworkers yesterday, Daggett said “Our organizin...

Monday, March 25, 2013

   As part of its new profit improvement plan, TNT Express will sell its Chinese and Brazilian domestic operations, ramp up technology investment and strive to generate 220 million euros ($283 million) in savings by 2015.    Officials expect to cut 4,000 jobs over the next three years and spend 150 million euros on restructuring costs by 2015 to achieve these goals.    Bernard Bot, TNT’s interim chief executive officer, will collaborate with his proposed successor...

Thursday, March 21, 2013

   The American Logistics Aid Network (ALAN) said last October’s Superstorm Sandy, which ravaged the U.S. Northeast, has shown the network’s strength, as well a highlighted areas for improvement.    “A particular strength of ALAN’s network is that its members tend to be problem solvers,” said ALAN President Jock Menzies, in a statement. “Supply chain management, by its very nature, requires working with others and finding the best and most efficient alternatives. These traits are ext...

Thursday, March 21, 2013

   Some members of the European Parliament see commercial concerns outweighing safe working conditions in the European Aviation Safety Agency’s proposed rules on flight and duty time limitations and rest requirements and have left open the door for a veto of the program.    The Parliament recently asked European Commission Aviation Director Matthew Baldwin for further clarification about the new rules regarding stand-by, turnaround and on-call times. They also pointed out that U.S. ru...

Thursday, March 21, 2013

   At the end of last month, Ryder System surpassed its goal of hiring 1,000 veterans by the end of the year, a pledge made in November 2011 as part of the federal government’s Hiring Our Heroes program.    Ten percent of Ryder’s workforce now consists of veterans. The veterans now working at Ryder serve as truck drivers, diesel mechanics and warehouse employees. These employees have been equipped with logistical, management, mechanical and teamwork experience by t...

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

   The Government Accountability Office Wednesday released a report on shipping between Puerto Rico and the United States and possible modification of the Jones Act requirement that vessels participating in the trade be registered in the United States, crewed by U.S. citizens, and built in a U.S. shipyard.     The report, prepared at the request of Pedro Pierluisi, Puerto Rico’s representative in the U.S. House, said “Shippers doing business in Puerto Rico that GAO cont...

Monday, March 18, 2013

   The American Trucking Associations argued Friday in front of a panel of judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s hours of service rule changes should not be implemented.    General counsel for the ATA argued the existing rules are sufficient and changing the rules, which will go into effect July 1, is “baseless.” Prasad Sharma, who is representing the ATA, also said the changes were “agenda-driven rather than...

Friday, March 15, 2013

   Forever 21 has been ordered by a district court to comply with a subpoena issued by the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division in August, demanding the retailer produce supply chain documents regarding garment shipping.     The retailer had declined to follow the subpoena.    The organization originally demanded the documents following a sweep of downtown Los Angeles garment sewing factories that found goods destined for Forever 21 stores were pr...

Friday, March 15, 2013

   The Teamsters National Freight Industry Negotiating Committee is reviewing proposed network changes by YRC Freight Worldwide and has advised local unions not to schedule any meetings with the company.    YRC previously sent union leadership a proposed set of network changes in an effort to optimize line-haul density, reduce shipment handling and improve service. Company officials said it would like the network improvements to start in May and will convene a formal hearing in April...

Thursday, March 14, 2013

   In the fourth quarter of 2012, the turnover rate for drivers at large truckload carriers hit 90 percent, a 14-point drop from the previous quarter, according to the American Trucking Associations’ Trucking Activity Report .    At smaller carriers, turnover dropped from 94 percent to 76 percent during the quarter, but averaged out to 82 percent for the year, the highest finish since 2007.     Larger carrier driver turnover at the end of the year was at its lowest poi...

Thursday, March 14, 2013

   As part of the Obama administration’s “Joining Forces” initiative, UPS will hire 25,000 veterans over the next five years. The company has also pledged to serve more than 25,000 hours volunteering for veterans service organizations.    According to a press release, veterans and members of reserve and National Guard units currently make up 7.5 percent of the company’s workforce.    The company’s pledge will include transition programs for veterans, new alliances with vete...

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

   The European Shippers's Council said it welcomes a decision by the European Commission (EC) to end guidelines that gave the shipping industry special treatment under European antitrust law, such as allowing exchange of infrormation.    The commission said last month it would allow current maritime guidelines to expire on Sept. 26, 2013, adding they were no longer needed. It had set up the guidelines to facilitate the transition to a general competition regime f...

Thursday, March 07, 2013

   Representatives for the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) and their employers are continuing to hold negotiation sessions in an attempt to reach agreement on local contract issues in New York and other ports.    A post on the union's Facebook page Wednesday said the union and New York Shipping Association (NYSA), the group that represents employers in the Port of New York and New Jersey, "engaged in intense negotiations for (the) third day" and other port areas were a...

Wednesday, March 06, 2013

   The International Longshore and Warehouse Union said Tuesday that it had filed an unfair labor practice against Mitsui-United Grain, which operates a grain export terminal in Vancouver, Wash., on the Columbia River.    The union is complaining about a lockout of 200 members of ILWU Local 4 that began on Feb. 27. The company said it began the lockout after an investigator it hired allegedly found evidence that a union member who was part of the Local 4's labor relations commit...

Wednesday, March 06, 2013

   Norfolk Southern is no longer sorting manifest railcars and building blocks of cars by destination at its yard in Roanoke, Va., because it is uneconomical, the railroad announced last week.    The volume of general merchandise cars there has declined by about 30 percent since 2006, and the geographical location and layout of the Roanoke yard made it expensive to operate and redundant within the NS network, the railroad said.    The Roanoke Terminal will continu...

Wednesday, March 06, 2013

   The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration has ordered Norfolk Southern Railway Co. to pay $1.2 million to three workers for wrongfully terminating them for reporting workplace injuries, in violation of whistleblower provisions in the Federal Railroad Safety Act.    The company has also been ordered to expunge the disciplinary records of the three workers, post a notice regarding employees' whistleblower protection rights and train workers on these rights, the Lab...

Wednesday, March 06, 2013

   The federal government says that people who used to make Twinkies, Ho Hos and Wonder Bread lost their jobs in part due to foreign competition and qualify for training subsidized by the government.    In November, Hostess Brands Inc. shut down and filed for bankruptcy liquidation, saying it was unable to keep up with medical and pension obligations, competition and difficult economic conditions.     Last month, the U.S. Department of Labor announced that about 18,000 ...

Tuesday, March 05, 2013

   U.S. Customs is using plans for how to resume business in the wake of a natural or man-made disaster as a guideline for dealing with the forced budget cuts that went into effect March 1, the agency said in a memo over the weekend outlining how it will try to minimize the impact of the sequester process.    Officials reiterated that they are eliminating overtime work and personnel will begin to to lose a day per pay period in unpaid leave in mid-April. Their strategy redirects...

Friday, March 01, 2013

   The International Longshore Workers Union is accusing Mitsui's United Grain Corp. of fabricating a story about an ILWU member sabotaging equipment at its grain export terminal in Vancouver Wash., to lock workers out.    Earlier this week, United Grain Corp fired an employee it believes vandalized equipment in December and had its lawyer send a letter to the union announcing the lockout . It has also released a summary of an investigator's report about the alleged sabotage of ...

Thursday, February 28, 2013

   According to the American Trucking Associations, it will cost $320 million to prepare the industry for the impending hours of service rule change, and if a current court challenge is upheld, that money will be spent in vain.    Arguments in the case are scheduled for March 15.    The ATA argued that the denial to delay implementation of the rule change until three months after the pending court case is decide hinges on “a legal analysis that is wholly inapplicable” to th...

Thursday, February 28, 2013

   Across-the-board funding cuts mandated to take effect on Friday would cut deeply into U.S. Customs and Border Protection operations, potentially doubling wait times from two to four or five hours for travelers and commercial trucks at air, land, and sea ports, agency leaders reiterated to industry trade associations in a conference call on Friday, according to one of the groups.    In testimony on Capitol Hill earlier this month, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said t...

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

   United Grain Corp. (UGC) said Wednesday it has locked out members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) from its grain export terminal in the Port of Vancouver, Wash., following alleged efforts to sabotage equipment there.    “UGC’s decision was based on evidence in an investigator’s report received Monday, February 25 that shows two significant attempts to sabotage export terminal equipment were carried out by a member of ILWU Local 4’s Labor Relations Com...

Monday, February 25, 2013

   As part of its Operation Freedom program, Werner Enterprises has pledged to hire at least 1,000 veterans in 2013 and more than 5,000 veterans in the next five years.    According to the trucking company, veterans already account for 20 percent of its driver force.    To bring attention to the program, Werner has unveiled an Operation Freedom truck, which will be driven by David Conkling, an Army veteran, on his regular routes.    “This military truck is a speci...

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

    A proposed law that would require the ports of Seattle and Tacoma to employ drayage truck drivers as a means to improving drivers' earnings and working conditions is a bad idea, representatives of those two ports and others told a Washington State House of Representatives committee on Tuesday.    At a hearing of the House Labor and Workforce Development Committee , witnesses opposed to the legislation questioned its legality and said the proposal would increase costs to ...

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

   A five-day strike by Iberia workers could have a detrimental impact on crew logistics services at Spanish ports, according to Inchcape Shipping Services.    The group anticipates that 40 percent of scheduled flights and 10 percent of international flights out of Spain will be grounded until Feb. 22.    International Airlines Group, the amalgamation of British Airways and Iberia Airways, previously said it will implement a contingency plan to minimize the impact of the Ibe...

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

   Washington state’s legislature has scheduled a hearing for Tuesday morning on a proposed law that would require large ports in the state to “employ drayage truck operators to load, unload, and transport containerized cargo, other than agricultural products, at or through the port."    Under the proposed law, the port district may enter into contracts with cargo owners and shippers to provide drayage services, and "all loading, unloading, and transporting of containerized cargo...

Thursday, February 14, 2013

   The Independent Pilots Association has found that the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration overstated the costs associated with applying its new pilot-fatigue rules to cargo carriers by at least $175 million.    The FAA made a decision to not include cargo pilots in its pilot-fatigue ruling due to a perceived extreme cost. Not wanting to rely on the FAA’s cost benefit analysis, the IPA, which is the union for UPS pilots, hired a cost analysis expert who found the FAA’s benefit-cos...

Thursday, February 14, 2013

   The International Longshoremen's Association revealed details of the tentative master contract it has negotiated with the U.S. Maritime Alliance (USMX) , posting them on the ILA Website on Wednesday.    The six-year contract would expire Sept. 30, 2018 and provide ILA members with a $3 increase over three years - a $1 increase on Oct. 1, 2014; another $1 increase on Oct. 1, 2016 and lastly a $1 increase on Oct. 1, 2017. The starting salary for new members remains $2...