For the past nine months, operators and workers at the Port of Portland and 28 other West Coast ports have been locked in bitter negotiations over a collective bargaining agreement. Like pebbles thrown into a pond, the slowdowns and delays caused by the dispute have had a ripple effect throughout Oregon’s economy. by Representative Greg Walden
Crops are sitting, rotting on the docks. Trucks sit idle at the ports. Prices of commodities are plummeting. Farmers are losing their customers and communities are losing their livelihoods.
And negotiations are still at an impasse after nine months, despite the involvement of a federal mediator. The situation will only get worse. Since growers cannot reliably export their products, foreign customers have been forced to go elsewhere and may never come back.
Onion growers in Malheur County (whom I met with this week) are shipping at less than their production costs, if they are able to ship at all due to a backup on the railways. Pear growers in the Columbia Gorge are seeing shipments of perishable fruit delayed by over a month, degrading the value of the product. Cherry growers have lost thousands of dollars due to the disruption, and Oregon’s potato farmers have seen their sales decline 15 percent.
Manufacturers and transportation companies are also reporting a heavy reduction in sales, reverberating throughout Oregon’s economy.
Nationally, agriculture exports have been reduced by $1.75 billion every month because of the labor slowdown. At the Port of Portland, Oregon’s largest port, 95 percent of shipments are being delayed, with delays averaging four to six weeks. On top of that, the Port’s largest carrier, Hanjin, announced recently they are cancelling service to Portland, a double whammy for Oregon agriculture and other industries.
Enough is enough. It’s time to end this crisis. I’ve teamed up with members of Congress from both sides of the aisle to introduce a resolution calling on both sides to swiftly reach an agreement. It’s time they get their work done before more people suffer.
And we’re calling on the president to get involved too. A similar situation in 2002 was only ended when the president got involved to end a lock out. While it is encouraging that President Obama has sent a member of the cabinet to help mediate the dispute, he must do more to publically urge both sides to end this conflict as soon as possible. And if the situation should move into a strike or lockout, he should immediately use the legal authority Congress has granted him to settle the dispute and end this crisis.
More than one in five Oregon jobs depend on trade. And 40 percent of our agriculture products are shipped internationally, according to the Oregon Farm Bureau. The labor dispute at West Coast ports has already harmed our fragile economy, and it will only get worse if not resolved. It’s time to end this crisis and get Oregon products—and our economy—moving again.
