Isles avert The exemption to the West Coast dock lockout that will allow goods to be shipped to and from Hawaii again came just in time, local suppliers and retailers say.
cargo price hike
The first ships are to arrive at
the end of this week after Hawaii
gets a dock lockout exemptionBy Leila Fujimori
lfujimori@starbulletin.comResidents should not see any shortages and prices may not be affected even though costs for shipping goods by air may be higher for the next week until the first container ships arrive in Honolulu.
"We're fine, and that's good news for Hawaii," said Brian Christensen, president of Fleming Companies, one of Hawaii's largest food suppliers. "We've flown produce in already. If they're going to have the exemption, then everything will slowly get back to normal."
Brian Taylor, CSX vice president and general manager for Hawaii and Guam, said: "It's a positive step forward in terms of being able to service Hawaii again."
However, Taylor warned: "The one wild card is that once the international situation is resolved, and all the ships go back to work, there is a tremendous backlog in the port of Los Angeles, which could prevent us and Matson from keeping a regular schedule."
CSX's first ship, the Consumer, will depart from Long Beach, Calif., at midnight tonight and arrive early Friday morning. CSX will have four vessels coming to Hawaii in the next seven days, Taylor said.
Matson Navigation Co.'s arrivals are scheduled for five successive days, with the first ship to arrive Saturday.
Hawaii retailers say as long as regular container shipping returns soon, customers probably won't see higher prices despite the higher cost of air freight.
"We're not raising prices because we owe it to our customers," said Roger Godfrey, president of Times Super Market Ltd. "We have no intention of raising our prices. We're doing the best we can."
Max Kang, purchasing and kitchen manager for Todai Restaurant Waikiki, which serves about 900 to 1,000 patrons daily, said the cost of air-shipping produce costs the restaurant 20 to 25 percent more than usual.
But despite that added cost, prices at the restaurant will not go up.
"Suppliers tell me not to worry because they've been prepared for the last two months," he said. "But if it extends more than two weeks, we would definitely be affected."
The Pacific Maritime Association, which represents shipping companies, agreed to allow dockworkers to load ships heading to and from Hawaii on all West Coast ports late Friday night, after granting a similar request for Alaska.
"We thought it was important to respond to the appeals from the governor and the congressional delegation, and this is the right thing to do," said PMA spokesman Steve Sugerman. But before agreeing to the exemption, "we needed assurances that the union workers would not hard-time us and wouldn't slow down the terminals."
Steve Stallone, spokesman for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, which represents 10,500 workers, said the union has always wanted to allow its workers to move cargo targeted for Hawaii.
"We know how dependent you are on getting the stuff there, so much so that even if we were out on strike, we would send the stuff to Hawaii," Stallone said.
"They're trying to blame this on us," he said.
Shipping companies and the ILWU were expected to go back to the negotiating table this morning, and had resumed talks yesterday morning and into the night.
ILWU longshoremen earn an average of $106,000 annually, and Sugerman said PMA is proposing a package to increase their average salary to $114,000. For clerks, who earn an average of $128,000, the proposal is $137,500, he said.
Stallone said money is not the issue. The main sticking point has been the inclusion of language in their contract, which guarantees that new jobs created by new technology will be unionized.
The union and the shipping agencies are also working on a new request to allow longshoremen to work ships destined for Guam.
"They're in the same situation as Hawaii," Stallone said.
He said the union has also been pushing to move perishable produce and grain from the Midwest, which is exported to Asia.
"The stuff is going to rot soon," he said.
Despite the news of a resumption in container shipping, Les Lee, the Beretania Times Super Market store manager, said customers continued to purchase lots of toilet tissue yesterday.
"People aren't going to buy a lot of produce because it's perishable," he said. "It's on an as-need basis."
But the shutdown may have an upside to it, said Bill Thayer, president of Waldron Steamship Co., agent for several cruise ships that stop in Hawaii for supplies and that have an average of 3,000 passengers and crew.
"If there's a silver lining, there'll be more supplies and provisions sourced here in Hawaii," Thayer said. Because of a possible lag time in the delivery of products, he said cruise liners may turn to local products.
Pacific Maritime Association
International Longshore and Warehouse Union
