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Source: Huffington Post
Source: Chicago Tribune
From Economic Times:
Edith Maersk crosses Suez CanalStraddling one of the world’s great sea routes, the Suez Canal corridor is set to become a bridge connecting Africa with Asia if a grand plan by Egypt’s new government comes to fruition. President Mohamed Mursi’s administration is reviving and expanding a series of projects initiated in the late 1990s under former President Hosni Mubarak to turn the banks of the Suez Canal into a world trading and industrial centre, hoping it will earn billions of dollars and address a growing unemployment crisis.
From the Journal of Commerce:
Contract negotiations are continuing between office clerical workers in Los Angeles-Long Beach and 14 waterfront employers.
The Los Angeles-Long Beach Harbor Employers Association and the Office Clerical Unit of International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 63 released a brief statement Monday saying they have set a bargaining schedule into next week.
More in the Journal of Commerce
Iran’s civilian population is already reeling from sanctions that, according to the United Nations, are cutting access to medicine and humanitarian goods. But today, Maersk Line, the world’s largest shipping container company, announced it will end port service in Iran.
In Maersk’s statement, they declared that their cargoes had been limited to goods for the welfare of the general population:
“To date, Maersk Line’s business in Iran has involved transporting foodstuffs and other goods, for example vehicles, for the benefit of the general civilian population. It is with regret that it is ceasing these activities.”
Maersk’s spokeswoman cited concerns about the possibility of penalties from the U.S. government, despite the fact that food is supposedly exempt from current U.S. sanctions:
“This is a pragmatic decision based on an assessment of balancing the benefits of doing limited business in Iran against the risk of damaging business opportunities elsewhere particularly the U.S.”
Maersk’s shutdown can only make basic foodstuffs more scarce for Iran’s civilian population, a trend we are likely to see continue as sanctions escalate. As the UN reported...
MUNZ members, seen above, have fought the Ports of Auckland's casualization plans. A breakaway group of workers has signed a scab collective agreement giving the Port an agreement inferior to the MUNZ contract.
PortPro is an officially registered union for Ports of Auckland workers, but don’t expected the Council of Trade Unions to support them.
PortPro just signed a ‘collective’ agreement with the Auckland Council-owned company but the Maritime Union of New Zealand, which has the largest share of workers at the port, is still in bitter dispute over the conditions for their members.
CTU president Helen Kelly says PortPro “simply agreed to all of the port’s bargaining points” – no weekend loading, no standard shifts. The contract “removes all security of employment.”
PortPro chairman Grant Lane retorts that the CTU uses ”typical bully-boy tactics.”
PortPro’s members were mostly casual or contract labourers. Lane himself is a disgruntled ex-member of MUNZ. He says he objected to the fees charged by the union.
Port spokesman Matt Ball insists the sudden arrival of a new union in the middle of a long, bitter industrial dispute isn’t a situation...
New hull design on a 13,800 TEU ship. The ships will operate at typical speeds between 15 and 19.5 knots, with a maximum of about 23 knots, and propulsive power will be about 16 percent lower than with an initial hull design optimised for only one speed and draught condition.A new hull design will make 10 new 13,800 TEU ships to be operated by APL Limited (APL) 20 percent more fuel-efficient per TEU, according to the company and its partners.
The fuel savings were said to be worth about $3 million per ship per year. HHI is now building the first of the new ships, which is scheduled to be delivered next year.
Maersk Line is also taking steps toward more energy-efficient hull design, and is adding 20 ships to its fleet with rounded, rather than streamlined, hulls.
More at Ship and Bunker
Source: In These Times
Source: Huffington Post
Source: Equal Times
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