Maersk Line said it will transfer its Charleston calls to other ports during the next two years because International Longshoremen's Association locals at the port refused to allow the carrier's terminal work to be transferred to non-union state workers.
The carrier, which accounts for one-fourth of Charleston's volume, had threatened to move its operations if it could not reduce its costs. Since the economy turned down, Maersk has been paying shortfall fees for failing to meet the volume commitments in its contract with the South Carolina State Ports Authority.
Maersk supported a ports authority proposal to transfer the carrier's operations from an ILA-staffed section of the terminal that's used exclusively by Maersk to a common-use area operated by non-union employees of the port authority.
The port's three ILA locals rejected the transfer last week, saying it would cost union jobs.
In an announcement Thursday, Maersk said it had told the port authority that it would leave Charleston and return its dedicated terminal to the authority on Dec. 31, 2010, when its current contract expires.
Maersk said it would move one service, the South Atlantic Express, representing about 25 percent of its Charleston port calls, to other nearby ports in early 2009.
The Journal of Commerce Online
Login
.jpg)
