A meeting of presidents US President holds top level meeting with labour presidents … and lunch
“Right now, three global alliances, made up entirely of foreign companies, control almost all of ocean freight shipping.” - WHITE HOUSE STATEMENT
that from July to September of 2021, eight of the largest carriers charged customers fees totalling $2.2 billion—a 50% increase on the previous three-month period. “Meanwhile, the ocean carrier companies are experiencing elevated profits and soaring profit margins. Estimates suggest that the container shipping industry made a record $190 billion in profits in 2021, a seven-fold increase from the previous year and five times what it made over the entire period from 2010-2020. “Profit margins have increased by even larger amounts. In the third quarter of 2021, the average operating margin of the major carriers was about 56%, compared to an average operating margin of 3.7% two years earlier.” Beyond price increases, the government is also taking aim at specific business practices such as cancelling or changing bookings without notice and imposing “box rules” that require truckers to use only certain trailers to haul their containers. This, the government says, leads to lower pay and longer wait times for truck drivers, who get paid per box, and allows the ocean carriers to generate even higher detention and demurrage fees. Industry association the World Shipping Council (WSC) said the allegations were unfounded. The carriers were “moving more cargo right now than at any time in history in order to meet the unprecedented demand for imported goods during the pandemic,” said John Butler, WSC president and CEO. “The legislative proposals currently before Congress would upend the global transportation system, reducing service for US importers and exporters and raising costs for American consumers and businesses,” Butler said. • www.mua.org.au
Presidents of all US unions met with US President Joe Biden at the DuPont hotel, Wilmington, Delaware in March. US Labour Secretary Marty Walsh, himself a former union leader, was also at the meeting hosted by AFL CIO President Liz Shuler. The president thanked the labour leaders for their support. He outlined the steps his administration had taken since inauguration in January 2021 to help union members. In the 14 months since Joe Biden became President, more than 7.4M jobs have been created across the United States, and unemployment has reduced to 3.8%. Since coming to power Biden has sacked all Trump appointments on the National Labor Relations Board and appointed academics, former union leaders, union lawyers and mediators. “We’ve never had a US President this committed to the union movement,” said ILWU President Willie Adams. “Not Clinton, not Obama – not since Harry Truman.” Meanwhile in February former ILWU waterside worker and union official Max Vekich was sworn in as the fifth member of the Federal Maritime Commission. The Biden appointment was confirmed by the US Senate in a 51-43 vote on February 10. •
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