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US east coast dockers' union chief refuses to give up chassis inspections

THE US east coast dockers' union chief Harold Daggett said his International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) will never give up jurisdiction over chassis inspections at marine terminals.

Years ago, before ocean carriers abandoned supplying chassis to shippers, it made sense that longshoremen, indirect employees of carriers, inspect chassis as carriers bore the liability for equipment failures.

But that is no longer so, and the American Trucking Associations says the practice is illegal because carriers bear no responsibility, and Mr Daggett's men have no right to set up check points and hold up outgoing trucks - simply because it was their legitimate work in the past.

But Mr Daggett was adamant about giving up the work.

"That's never going to happen, not on my watch," Mr Daggett told Newark's Journal of Commerce. "We're not going to let any chassis roll off these piers when the chassis are cracked, or the wheels aren't working, or the brakes aren't working, and kill people on the highways."

Mr Daggett noted that the ILA's contract gives the union the right to inspect all chassis except trucker- or shipper-owned equipment.

"That's in our master contract. We've had that since day one, since containerisation started," he said.

The trucking association contends that regardless of what's in the ILA and west coast International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) contracts, dockers have no right to inspect equipment unless they own it or have authorisation from equipment owners.

Curtis Whalen, executive director of the ATA's intermodal conference, has sought federal regulatory intervention and if he doesn't get it, he's going to court.

The ILA recently lost a court battle, in which they argued in vain that their contract with waterfront employers contained protected hiring procedures that would prevent the New York Waterfront Commission from having a say in how many women and minorities would be hired.

The ILA wants a port-wide "grey" pool of interchangeable chassis established by lessors and others.

Mr Daggett is urging carriers to use their influence to help launch the grey pool as soon as possible. He said he wants questions about the pool to be settled before the union begins substantive negotiations with employers on a master contract extension.

Mr Daggett said the ILA would retain its jurisdiction over maintenance and repair work in any port-wide pool in New York-New Jersey.

He suggested that to encourage use of the grey pool, over which the ILA feels it would have jurisdiction the terminals might create express gates for pool chassis.