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The Nicaragua Canal has been discussed for decades, but the reasons for the apparent rush to approve its creation “are unclear at this point”, says biologist Jorge A. Huete-Perez, president of the Academy of Sciences of Nicaragua.
Years ago, says Huete-Perez, “at least one previous impact study on a possible canal through Lake Nicaragua resulted in the project being deemed too destructive [to the environment]“. He argues that Nicaragua is not technologically prepared for the construction and doesn’t have enough scientists to deal with the possible environmental damage.
Barry Chernoff, Schumann professor of environmental studies at the Wesleyan University in the United States, says: “The canal would be a disaster for biological diversity and ecology. It could undo millions of years of evolution in Central American freshwater and marine [animals]“.
More from Thomson-Reuters
Westwood Shipping Lines has made the following announcement:
Westwood Shipping Lines (WSL) is pleased to announce a new offering in our service portfolio. WSL will launch a new fortnightly, refrigerated container service, starting on July 10th with our vessel, Westwood Cascade 22W. We will offer our customers a direct reefer service from the Pacific Northwest, including Seattle CY and Vancouver, B.C. CY to the ports of Tomakomai, Japan and Busan, Korea serving markets in these areas. We have acquired 40’HC state of the art refrigerated containers and are excited about this new service capability. The superior level of customer service that we are known for in the dry container, bulk, and project cargo markets, we will now carry over into the refrigerated cargo market.
More at the company’s web site
If the Histadrut labor federation threatens port reforms, the government will retaliate with measures against organized labor, Transportation Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday.
While the government is prepared to negotiate with Histadrut chairman Ofer Eini, Katz warned that it would be a mistake on his part to declare a general strike.
“A strike would lead the government to take steps that would be problematic for him, like passing a compulsory arbitration law,” Katz said. “If Eini will prevent me from upgrading import to the State of Israel and from lowering the price of products for all citizens – Eini doesn’t want to reach that point.”
More at the Jerusalem Post
Recently the Port of Seattle urged the Seattle City Council to pass marijuana zoning laws that would keep grow operations to 10,000 square feet or smaller in the Sodo neighborhood.
The council is considering three options: 10,000, 20,000, or 50,000 square feet. The council decided not to vote on the issue, instead pushing a decision back to late July at the earliest.
More at the Puget Sound Business Journal
From the Journal of Commerce:
The Oregon AFL-CIO executive board has voted to pass a resolution that supports International Longshore and Warehouse Union workers at the Port of Portland after they were locked out by Marabeni-Columbia Grain.
“The ILWU has a long history of backing up other unions in their struggles,” said Leal Sundet, ILWU coast committeeman, in a written statement. “That they are now backing us up as we’re under attack by Marubeni is a good thing, and we look forward to getting our hardworking members back to work with a fair agreement that respects the many decades of service and profits we’ve provides to these companies.”
More at the Journal of Commerce
Source: Omaha World Herald
A deal that could help net the city a waterfront baseball stadium also risks exposing the Port of Oakland to retaliatory lawsuits from two waterfront conglomerates each seeking fresh public concessions.Several unions insist the port would be better off fighting the lawsuit and maintaining smaller terminals with multiple operators. “They’re allowing SSA to blackmail them,” said Sean Farley of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, which stands to lose jobs to other unions that do more work with SSA.
Dozens of longshoremen protested the settlement on Tuesday. They said the deal would hurt workers over the long haul because it would cement SSA and Ports America — two companies with close ties to Wall Street — as the dominant players on the waterfront.
“We’re not dealing with companies anymore, we’re dealing with corporations,” ILWU, Local 10 President Mike Villeggiante said. “And those corporations have big business investors who want to cut costs, and those costs are us.”
More in the Mercury News
Foss keeps regional headquarters in Portland and has operations in Rainier and Astoria. It has vessels working from Astoria to beyond Portland and towing to Alaska, California and the Washington coast.Regional news outlets reported in April that Seattle-based Foss Maritime had announced its intention to leave operations in the Columbia and Snake rivers to Tidewater Barge Lines, consolidate in the Puget Sound and lay off 60 of its workers.
Now Foss tells a different story.
“Foss Maritime Company had never reached a decision to exit the Columbia/Snake River (CSR) markets,” said Scott Merritt, senior vice president of operations, in a news release, adding that his company had entertained offers but never made a deal.
“Earlier this year, we let our employees know that market conditions had made it difficult for us to remain profitable in the Columbia/Snake River area so we were reviewing our options.”
More at the Daily Astorian
DP World Australia has secured the stevedoring services contract for a new weekly service calling into its three eastern seaboard container terminals, totalling approximately 250,000 containers per year.
DP World Australia managing director Ganesh Raj said: “We welcome the new CAT Consortium of Yang Ming Line, Evergreen Line, Sinotrans and Pacific International Lines (PIL) to connect Australia with China and Taiwan.”
“Importantly the CAT service will call upon the Kaohsiung port-Taiwan’s premier hub port and a transhipment base for markets covering Japan, Korea, Europe and the Middle East,” Mr Wu concluded.
More at Transport and Logistics News
Source: Labor Video Project
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