Longer-term solutions, according to experts, will need to be industry-driven. The Agriculture Transportation Coalition, for example, has called for a waiver of the PierPass traffic mitigation fee. While the fee is meant to reduce congestion by encouraging truck pickups and deliveries at off hours, the transportation industry believes it has impeded traffic flow, especially during slowdowns.
The federal government may also need to play a bigger role, mandating milestones for contract negotiations, requiring transparency in the negotiating process, or intervening more quickly in the event of a dispute. Another suggested option is to amend the National Labor Relations Act or add ports to the Railway Labor Act to make slowdowns and strikes illegal, requiring mediation of any disputes.
Bloxom, who stresses that both labor and management contributed to the shipping problems on the West Coast, says, “The concern this: how are we going to solve this before the new contract is up in three years, and we have yet another crop to move?”
“It’s important as an industry and as a country that we find some sort of solution,” agrees Reinholt. “It’s a situation where a relatively small group of people can have such a big economic impact. And it’s not just the produce industry—we are a little more time sensitive, but we’re a small part of the total impact.”
