Port of L.A. Continues to Sacrifice Economic Health for Political Agenda

According to the Los Angeles Times, the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles will need four years to recover from the decrease in imports caused by the economic downturn. Despite struggling with anemic freight volumes, officials at the Port of Los Angeles continue to direct their focus toward their obvious political ambition -- unionizing the port.

The Port of L.A. is now lobbying Congress to amend the federal act preempting local governmental regulation of the trucking industry with regard to the price, route or service of a motor carrier, said The Journal of Commerce. These efforts are the latest attempt to get around a ruling issued by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold the federal preemption act. Previously the port tried to include the employee mandate as part of a concession plan attached to the Clean Trucks Program.

According to the Los Angeles Business Journal, the city-owned Port of Los Angeles hired the Gephardt Group, an Atlanta-based consulting firm founded by former U.S. Rep. Richard Gephardt, for $50,000 to help on the matter. When asked about lobbying efforts, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a former union organizer and supporter of the employee mandate, deferred questions on the matter to the port. Villaraigosa has received significant funding from labor organizations who also support banning independent owner-operators in favor of a unionized workforce of port employees.

President of the Pacific Maritime Shipping Association John McLaurin said that the port's battle against preemption "runs contrary to the port's own financial interests, threatens jobs and is being strongly opposed by cargo owners and the general trade community." While new capacity continues to grow at Atlantic, Gulf Coast, Canadian and Mexican ports, Port of L.A. officials are consciously making decisions that will harm already declining container volumes. "Alienating your customers while trying to convince them to keep their business from leaving the Port of L.A. is hardly a sustainable business model," said McLaurin.

Despite the clear economic shortcomings of L.A.'s push for preemption and unionization, the Port of Oakland has decided to follow suit. According to The Journal of Commerce, the Port of Oakland is seeking a "national" goods movement policy -- but in the same breath, seeking local exceptions from the benefits of federal uniformity. Not surprisingly, the resolution was strongly opposed by the trade community, particularly by the very agricultural exporters and intermodal shippers that the Port needs to court if they are to remain competitive.

"If California ports are to be successful in attracting cargo, they need to put themselves in their customers' shoes - and recognize that global trade is a competitive environment which is not tolerant of policies that are based solely on political patronage," said McLaurin.