Gov. Cayetano appeals for shipping exemption
By Dan Nakaso and Treena Shapiro
Advertiser Staff Writers
As the Pacific port shutdown escalated into yet another day, Gov. Ben Cayetano appealed to shipping companies and West Coast dockworkers for an exemption that would allow shipment of supplies to Hawai'i.
The Pacific Maritime Association, which has locked out some 10,500 dockworkers along 29 West Coast ports, may consider the request today, said Steve Sugermen, a spokesman for the association that represents more than 80 shipping companies and terminal operators.
Hopes for a quick settlement dimmed yesterday when both sides met with a federal mediator and union officials stormed out, angered that port employers were accompanied by armed security.
While Hawai'i businesses have been stockpiling goods during the contract dispute and say they have enough to weather a week or two of cargo disruption, concern is growing that a protracted port shutdown could lead to shortages.
With the Islands dependent on shipping for more than 90 percent of all goods, Cayetano wrote to the leaders of the carriers' association and International Longshore & Warehouse Union yesterday, saying he wanted an exemption similar to one that has been granted to Alaska.
"Unlike Alaska," the governor said in a statement, "there are no roads to Hawai'i, and all goods and supplies must be shipped either by ship or air carrier. A prolonged labor dispute will have a devastating effect on the economy and morale of our island state."
But Sugermen said Cayetano was mistaken. Only one nonassociation company, Totem Ocean Trailer Express, sent goods to Alaska out of Tacoma, Wash., on Saturday, Sugermen said. ILWU members loaded the company's ship Westward Venture, Sugermen said.
"There is no exemption for Alaska," Sugermen said. "Right now there are no exemptions on the coast."
But Cayetano's request "certainly will be considered by the board," he said. Sugermen declined to speculate on how such an exemption might work.
Cayetano warned in his letter that "warehousing space is very limited in Hawai'i, therefore inventories will be depleted rapidly as the result of the interruption of this vital supply link."
The Big Island's largest grocery chain, KTA Super Stores, already has begun limiting customers to two 20-pound bags of rice and two packages of toilet paper each.
ILWU spokesman Jeremy Prillwitz said yesterday, "We are committed to working whatever cargo we can work under our jurisdiction."
ILWU president James Spinosa replied in writing yesterday to Cayetano, but did not specifically address the request for an exemption.
The "PMA's lockout of the ILWU workforce has shutdown all waterborne cargo shipments between Hawai'i and the West Coast," Spinosa wrote. "Let me repeat that it is the PMA, not the ILWU, that is directly and adversely impacting free trade and the U.S. economy.
Hawai'i's two major shipping lines, Matson Navigation Co. and CSX Lines, belong to the Pacific Maritime Association. Officials from both companies did not respond to requests for comment late yesterday.
While the West Coast shutdown has idled thousands of dockworkers, Hawai'i union members continue to work, said Eusebio Lapenia, president of the ILWU Local 142.
The West Coast lockout could, eventually affect Hawai'i's docks, however.
"It's a trickling-down effect," Lapenia said. "It comes from the West Coast back to Hawai'i. If they continue to lock us out, we cannot continue to unload those ships that are out there, out in the docks, up and down the coast."
Tensions in the West Coast talks have not appeared in the union's Hawai'i talks, he said.
"We're moving along, making small movements here and there — nothing to the point where it's antagonistic," Lapenia said. "We're not fighting, really, to the point where we're fighting across the table and swearing at each other."
Meanwhile, one of the last cargo ships that left the West Coast for Hawai'i before the shutdown arrived yesterday.
"After these ships come in, that is when Hawai'i will begin to see this supply disruption," said James Andrasick, president and chief executive officer for Matson, before boarding a flight to San Francisco for today's association meeting.
Before the ports closed, Matson had four arrivals a week. The next scheduled arrival would have been Sunday, Andrasick said.
Yesterday, a spokesman for Matson — which announced on Sunday it would close its West Coast operations through yesterday's day shift — said the company was following the PMA's lead in refusing to hire back dockworkers unless they re-extend the contract canceled Sept. 1.
The last CSX ship arrived in Hawai'i on Monday, heavily laden with goods, said Brian Taylor, the shipping line's vice president and general manager.
"We are pretty much inundated with phone calls," Taylor said. "I think people are anxious to know what is happening out there. They are anxious to know when we might see some resolution, and when we might see some ships coming to Hawai'i."
President Bush yesterday urged the union and association to work with the federal mediator, and said the labor dispute threatened the national economy. He gave no hint on whether he would intervene.
"It's a problem — something that we're just going to have to get these parties to work through and get back to work, open these ports up," Bush said. "It's important to our economy to do so."
Union officials said yesterday afternoon they would discuss reopening talks, perhaps at another location and with limits on the number of participants, but would no longer deal with the shipping lines' chief negotiator, Joseph Miniace. The shipping lines rejected that condition.
Both sides said, however, that they were eager to negotiate a contract and get the docks moving again.
Hugh Clark, Andrew Gomes, Mike Gordon, The Associated Press and the Los Angeles Times contributed to this report.
