Catherwood LibraryILR School

Of the almost 1000 container ports in the world, only 53 use automation, and the majority of those are in Europe and Asia. The slowness of U.S. port operators to automate has been partly due to union resistance, and is at the heart of the current stalemate in negotiations between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), and the Pacific Maritime Association, which represents 70 shipping companies and port operators. Container vessels anchored for weeks in the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach made news last year as an example of the pandemic's effect on supply chains, and while the contract expired on July 1st, both sides seemed determined in June to avoid a strike or lockout, in order to allay fears that supply chain issues would get worse. The Pacific Maritime Association wants to expand the use of remotely controlled cranes and other forms of automation, in order to "facilitate job and cargo growth, and reduce greenhouse-gas emissions in accordance to strict local environmental standards", but the ILWU released a study in June that automation at ports would eliminate jobs instead., creating a "lose-lose" proposition for dockworkers and customers. Some of the West Coast ports, such as TraPac terminal in Los Angeles and Long Beach Container Terminal (LBCT), have slowly begun automating since 2016, and the ILWU study reported that 572 full-time-equivalent jobs were eliminated in LBCT and TraPac in 2020 and 2021.