ILA’s automation concerns at NJ terminal

   Members of the International Longshoremen’s Association held a rally outside Global Terminals in Jersey City, N.J. on Friday to express their concerns about the use of automation at the terminal, which is being expanded.
   Stephen Knott, ILA’s general vice president, said the union wants to make sure if the terminal is automated that any jobs are still filled by ILA members.
   Virgil Maldonado, president of Local 1588, whose members work at the terminal, worried the union has not been kept informed about the plans for the terminal expansion and how the jobs of union members will be affected.
   He said the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is helping fund expansion, but that it was not clear that additional business at the facility would offset any jobs eliminated through automation.
   Workers marching in front of the terminal on Friday had signs that read “Port Authority: Stop Funding Unemployment” and “Port Authority: Protect Decent Jobs, Stop Corporate Greed.”
   Global, the New York Container Terminal on Staten Island and two terminals in Vancouver, British Columbia, are owned by a company that is a subsidiary of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.
   In 2010, the Port Authority acquired the 98-acre Global Terminal on the Port Jersey peninsula in Jersey City and Bayonne and said the facility would grow to 170 acres as it took over an adjacnet property used for auto handling.
   Global officials had no comment, but the union said the terminal will include a yard with automated rail-mounted gantry cranes.
   Maldonado said if any worker’s jobs are eliminated they should be entitled to a guaranteed income as compensation.
   The ILA said the rally was also “a means to demonstrate to its employers it is serious about protecting jurisdictions, jobs and the future” as it gears up to begin negotiations for a contract to replace one that expires in September. — Chris Dupin