Evergreen declares force majeure at port of New York

Evergreen declares force majeure at port of New York    Evergreen America Corp., the agent of Evergreen Marine Corp., a Taiwanese ocean carrier, has declared force majeure after a labor stoppage in the Port of New York and New Jersey.
   That means, according to one admiralty attorney, that Evergreen has “absolved itself from obligations to shippers for cargo in its care” on its vessels that have been unable to unload in the port.
   James McNamara, a spokesman for the International Longshoremen’s Association, confirmed that ILA workers that would normally unload Evergreen’s ships were not crossing a picket line formed by an ILA local comprised of clerical workers.
   “This is the action of one of our locals. The international union is trying to determine exactly what is happening. I have heard reports that ILA picketing against Evergreen has also occurred in the ports of Baltimore and Norfolk,” McNamara said.
   “This force majeure event consists of a labor dispute that has effectively closed all Evergreen operations at Maher Terminals at Port Elizabeth, N.J. (to certain vessels and their cargoes),” Evergreen said in a notice on its Web site.
      Evergreen said the dispute has affected five containerships: the “Ever Reward,” “Ever Repute,” “Ever Refine,” “Ever Result” and “Ever Divine.” Two of the five vessels operate in the Asia/U.S. East Coast “AUE” all-water service of Evergreen, while the other three are part of its Asia/U.S. West Coast/U.S. East Coast/north Europe “AUE” service.
   Brian Maher, chairman and chief executive officer of Maher Terminals, confirmed the stoppage but told Shipper’s News Wire that he could not comment on the situation.
   Barbara Yeninas, a spokesperson for Evergreen, said, “Evergreen is attempting to restore service to its customers through legal and administrative venues as ILA workers at Maher Terminals’ Berth 80 stage a job action, reportedly over a question regarding the union’s representation of port captains at the Port of New York and New Jersey terminal.”
   Other sources said the following events led to the work stoppage:
   After the ILA’s clerical workers’ local, led by Robert Levy, lost an election in an attempt to represent Evergreen’s clerical employees, the local targeted Evergreen’s port captains. The carrier had five port captains, all Taiwanese, who worked on visas in the U.S. from two to four years.
   When the captains allegedly voted 3-2 to join the ILA local, Evergreen felt that they had misrepresented their duties, telling the union they had clerical responsibilities. According to the text of a National Labor Relations Board decision dated April 25, Evergreen asserted “that its port captains, assistant port captain, and engineer are managerial employees.”
   After the NLRB ordered Evergreen to “cease and desist from refusing to bargain” with the ILA, the carrier allegedly planned to return two of the port captains to Taiwan. To protest that action, the clerical workers’ local set up picket lines at the Maher Terminal, the only facility Evergreen uses in the Port of New York and New Jersey.