ILWU Work Action Idles Pasha Containership in Honolulu Harbor

by Michael Hansen, Hawaii Shippers Council, March 2, 2017

KHON2 TV News, the local FOX broadcast channel in Hawaii, published on March 2, 2017, a news article, “Work stoppage at Honolulu Harbor delays shipments to neighbor islands,” describing a union stevedore work stoppage idling Pasha Hawaii Transport Lines LLC’s containership HORIZON PACIFC at Pier 51A, Honolulu Harbor.

KHON2 among others asked the President of the Hawaii Shippers’ Council – Mike Hansen – to comment on the work stoppage. The video was the lede on KHON2’s 6:00 p.m. evening news cast.

The containership HORIZON PACIFIC has a capacity of a 1526 TEU (Twenty-foot Equivalent Units), was built in 1979 and acquired by Pasha in May 2015 with their purchase of the Hawaii service of the now defunct Horizon Lines Inc. Pasha’s Jones Act containership services operated between Oakland and Long Beach California and Honolulu Harbor. Pasha operates a container terminal at Pier 51A, on Sand Island in Honolulu Harbor with their wholly owned subsidiary, Hawaii Stevedores Inc.

The work stoppage was in apparent violation of the contract between the Hawaii Stevedore industry and the ILWU’s Hawaii International Local 142 negotiated and ratified in the wake of the West coast Port Slowdown that affected shipping with the expiration of the Pacific Coast Longshore Agreement on July 1, 2014 and the tentative new agreement was made on February 20, 2015. The separate Hawaii agreement was concluded in late 2015 with a five year term.

Key excerpts:

Shipping company Pasha Hawaii says there’s been a work stoppage at Honolulu Harbor by its stevedores.

The container ship Pacific Horizon arrived from the mainland Wednesday and sat idle at Pier 51. None of the goods were unloaded.

A crew was supposed to start unloading it at 6 p.m. Wednesday, but no one showed up. The morning shift did the same thing.

Late Thursday afternoon, we got word from the company’s spokeswoman that workers arrived at around 2:30 p.m.

Mike Hansen, president of the Hawaii Shippers’ Council, says a one-day delay at Honolulu ports means a two- to three-day delay for the neighbor islands. Once the goods are unloaded in Honolulu, they are then taken to a barge operated by Young Brothers to the neighbor island ports, and those barges have set schedules of departures.

“If there’s been a delay and they miss the Young Brothers barge sailing to a neighbor island port, then they have to wait to until the next sailing, and so there’ll be a delay of a day, two days, three days depending upon which island port you’re talking about,” Hansen explained.

Hansen says it’s rare for unionized dock workers to organize a work stoppage unless they were negotiating for a new contract. The union ILWU and the maritime companies agreed on a five-year contract two years ago. Hansen says the work stoppage is a violation of the contract, so the company could take the union to arbitration to recover revenues lost.

We went to the union to find out why the workers did not show up, and were told no one was available to talk.

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SA: Pasha charters barges to ease shipping delays

KHON: Work stoppage at Honolulu Harbor delays shipments to neighbor islands