Terminals want productivity hike
November 17, 2008
BILL MONGELLUZZO
Pacifica Shipper
Cargo volumes are down, and congestion at marine terminals is only a bad memory, but industry veterans know they’ll be scrambling for space when economic conditions improve.

That is why terminal operators intend to use the International Longshore and Warehouse Union contract that was negotiated this year on the West Coast, and the International Longshoremen’s Association contract that will be negotiated next year on the East Coast, as opportunities to improve port productivity.

“Over time, U.S.-based facilities want to have world-class terminals,” said Bill Rooney, managing director for the Americas at Hanjin Shipping Co. “We have to gravitate toward world-class standards based on safety, the environment and productivity.”

Carriers say most terminals on both coasts average 25 moves per hour, compared with 30 or more in Asia and Europe.

European and Asian terminal operators were the first to adopt information technology and modern cargo-handling equipment. They were able to marry computerized terminal-operating systems with ultra-efficient machines to maximize production from limited acreage.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/nov2008/tran-n19.shtml
As MTA demands deep cutbacks
New York transit union president signs no-strike pledge
By Alan Whyte
19 November 2008
Barely two months before a contract deadline for New York City's 38,000 transit workers and as the transit authority announces plans for unprecedented cutbacks, the transit union's president has signed a court affidavit surrendering the right to strike and promising never to walk out again.
Transport Workers Union Local 100 President Roger Toussaint signed the no-strike pledge as part of a deal between the city and the TWU bureaucracy to restore dues check-off, the automatic deduction of union dues from workers paychecks.
After it staged a three-day strike in December 2005, the union lost dues check-off as part of the sanctions imposed under New York State's anti-strike Taylor Law, which bars walkouts by public employees. In addition it was hit with a $2.5 million fine.
The court affidavit signed by Toussaint, states, "The Union does not assert the right to strike against any government, to assist or participate in any such strike, or to impose an obligation to conduct, assist, or participate in such a strike, and that the Union has no intention, now or in the future, of conducting, assisting, participating, or imposing an obligation to conduct, assist or participate in any such strike, or threatening to do so, against the plaintiffs or any governmental employer."

Korea President Lee Says No to Railway Workers’ Plan for Strike
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2008/11/116_34597.html

11-18-2008 16:56
Lee Says No to Railway Workers’ Plan for Strike
By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter

President Lee Myung-bak warned Tuesday that Korea Railroad union workers should not go on strike as they plan to do Thursday.

``It doesn't make sense that state-run firm workers go on strike because their demand for rehiring union workers who were laid off has not been met, given the global economy is in crisis,'' said Lee during a video Cabinet meeting.

Lee is on an official visit to Brazil after attending the Group of 20 summit in the United States and presided over the online meeting from Sao Paulo.

``Labor may argue that they have good reason to resort to strikes, but it's clear that now is not the time,'' he said.

Lee said many people were worrying about losing their jobs amid the tough economic environment.

The President called on the management of the railroad corporation to persuade its union not to resort to extreme measures.

Representatives of the state-run firm's management and the union sat down Monday for negotiations on the demands.

http://www.sacbee.com/840/story/1407917.html
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Court issues injunction against United pilot union
By JOSHUA FREED
AP Airlines Writer
Published: Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2008
MINNEAPOLIS -- United Airlines said on Tuesday that a federal judge has barred its pilot union and four pilots from activities that disrupt the airline's activities.

United had accused some pilots of abusing sick time and refusing to fly extra hours. Sick-outs in particular are not allowed under the Railway Labor Act, the federal law that governs airline labor relations.

United said the judge in Chicago found that the actions of the Air Line Pilots Association had violated the act, and issued a preliminary injunction on Monday against four pilots and the union. United said it would next seek a permanent injunction.

Over the summer United blamed the pilots for the cancellation of 329 flights between July 19 and July 27. The carrier said that cost it about $8 million in lost revenue and $3.9 million in operating profit. United filed the lawsuit on July 30.

A spokesman for the United branch of ALPA did not immediately return a phone message seeking comment.

http://www.nupge.ca//news_2008/n17no08b.htm
Unsafe private highway trucks endanger workers and public

BCGEU calls for immediate system-wide safety audit of all maintenance vehicles

Vancouver (17 Nov. 2008) - The B.C. Government and Service Employees' Union (BCGEU/NUPGE) is demanding disclosure of all incidents in the past year where vehicles operated by private highways maintenance contractors flunked safety checks carried out by the province's commercial vehicle safety and enforcement branch.

The union, which represents 2,000 highways maintenance workers across B.C., is reacting to reports that a private highways contractor was caught operating vehicles so unsafe that a number of trucks were ordered out of service.

A government spokesperson admitted that a dozen pieces of heavy equipment operated by private highway contractor VSA in the Merritt area failed safety inspections on at least two occasions. Four trucks used in snow removal were in such poor mechanical state that they were put off the road.

"These are serious violations in which the well-being of our members and the travelling public has been put at risk," say BCGEU president Darryl Walker.

"That's why we're calling (for disclosure) of all recent violations. We also want (the Campbell government in) Victoria to carry out an immediate system-wide safety audit so that the public and front-line highways maintenance workers can be reassured that highways maintenance vehicles are in safe working order," Walker says.

www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/shipping-holed-beneath-the-waterline-995066.html

The Independent 6 November 2008

Shipping: Holed beneath the waterline

The staggering and sudden decline in the cost of chartering a cargo ship reflects both the global economic slowdown and the ongoing credit crunch. Sarah Arnott reports

Hold on to your hat: the Baltic Dry Index was down at 826 points yesterday, a shattering [93%] drop from its high of 11,793 in May.

The index, which tracks the price of shipping bulk cargo, might not sound like a reason to choke on your cornflakes. But it is an unparalleled, if subtle, barometer of the global trade in economic building blocks like iron ore, coal and grain - and it is telling a worrying tale.

Put simply, the cost of shipping has dropped through the floor. Sending a tonne of iron ore from Brazil to China in early June would have set you back more than $100 (£62) per tonne, or around $15m per voyage. But freight rates have now dropped to only slightly over $10 per tonne, or just $1.5m for the 70-90 day journey.

As if that wasn't dramatic enough, the drop in daily charter rates is even sharper. At the peak of the market, a 170,000-tonne Capesize bulk carrier was hired out at the eye-watering daily rate of $234,000. At the beginning of this week, it was $5,611 - a fall of nearly 98 per cent.

http://www.eastbayexpress.com/news/fighting_for_justice_against_ac_transit/Content?oid=863788

Fighting for Justice Against AC Transit
The story of the legal battle waged by the husband of a former general manager who died on the job.
By Robert Gammon

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November 12, 2008

Paul Banks just wants justice for his wife. Sharon Banks died nearly nine years ago, after suffering two major strokes while serving as the general manager of AC Transit. By all accounts, she was a respected, first-rate executive, and during her tenure at the helm of the East Bay transit agency, it enjoyed boom times. Yet after she suffered the strokes, he believes the agency's top brass mistreated her. They wouldn't give her retirement benefits and paid her successor more than her.

Sharon Banks.
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Ever since his wife's death in 1999, Paul Banks has fought the agency in an attempt to right those wrongs. In 2001, he sued AC Transit in federal court for racial and gender discrimination. Sharon Banks was the first African-American woman to run a major transit agency in California. Over the years, agency officials have maintained that they treated Sharon Banks fairly, but then last year, Paul Banks won an arbitration award for his wife's estate, stemming from the 2001 lawsuit. However, as of last Friday, the agency had still had not paid what it owed. "They've tried to break me," he told Full Disclosure. "They've tried to marginalize her."

http://www.sacbee.com/shallit/story/1393539.html

Bob Shallit: Attorney 'teary-eyed' over victory for injured railroad worker
By Bob Shallit
bshallit@sacbee.com
Published: Thursday, Nov. 13, 2008 | Page 1B
A local attorney is celebrating an eye-popping jury award he received for an injured Union Pacific Railroad employee.

The judgment: $48.5 million.

"I'm told it's the largest ever against a railroad company" under the Federal Employers' Liability Act, says Donald Britt, president and lead trial counsel at the Crow Law Firm in Sacramento.

The case involved a 30-year-old UP worker, Eric Doi, who became a quadriplegic after a car accident last year. A Los Angeles-area resident, Doi was in Arizona for a work assignment and was being driven to the job when the accident occurred.

The railroad contended he was on "a personal errand," unrelated to work, says Britt, who specializes in rail-related cases. He maintained it was a work-related injury, and the jury agreed.

The judgment, awarded Oct. 31, might be appealed, says UP spokesman Tom Lange.

While the railroad sympathizes with Doi's injuries, "We respectfully disagree with the jury's conclusions," Lange says. "We expect to pursue further judicial review."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/12/business/worldbusiness/12trams.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=streetcar&st=cse&oref=slogin

November 12, 2008
European Tram Makers to Gain From U.S. Streetcar Push

By JOHN TAGLIABUE
PARIS — America may have invented the streetcar, but Europe perfected it.

As gas prices soared and dozens of North American communities sought to reintroduce electric streetcars as an alternative to diesel buses, Europe’s tram builders were some of the biggest beneficiaries.

Now, as the administration of President-elect Barack Obama contemplates an infrastructure expansion to keep Americans working through a severe slowdown, trams may be one of the building blocks of economic revival and energy efficiency.

“Trams were invented by the Americans,” said Jean-Noël Debroise, vice president for product planning at Alstom, the French streetcar builder that is selling its sleek Citadis tram to cities like Houston and Toronto. “It’s a big market,” he said.

European companies like Alstom, Siemens of Germany, AnsaldoBreda of Italy, CAF of Spain and Skoda of the Czech Republic will be at the head of the line. They, along with non-European companies like Bombardier of Canada and Kinki Sharyo of Japan, are among the leading suppliers of streetcars, which are also known as light rail vehicles.

http://www.examiner.com/a-1672639~Year_after_SF_Bay_spill__ship_crew_still_detained.html

Year after SF Bay spill, ship crew still detained

Nov 4, 2008 2:51 PM (3 hrs ago) By PAUL ELIAS, AP

SAN FRANCISCO(Map, News) - For nearly a year, six Chinese crew members on a ship that crashed into theSan Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge - creating the bay's worst oil spill in nearly 20 years - have been detained by federal authorities.

The sailors are being held as material witnesses in the crash of the Cosco Busan. The men, including four who are not accused of wrongdoing, are fighting for the right to return to their families in China.

"This is a lengthy detention," said University of Georgia law professor Ronald Carlson, an expert on the material witness law. "These witnesses are being detained humanely. Still, there is that undeniable desire to return home."

The 900-foot cargo ship sideswiped a bridge support in heavy fog, gashing its hull and leaking more than 50,000 gallons of fuel that killed and injured thousands of birds. It was believed to be the biggest San Francisco Bay oil spill since 1988.

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Prosecutors want the six to testify in criminal cases against the harbor pilot,John Cota, and the ship's Hong Kong-based operator, Fleet Management Ltd.Both have pleaded not guilty.