PMA names McKenna CEO after Miniace resigns
The Pacific Maritime Association's 10-member board of directors has appointed Jim McKenna as president and chief operating officer, following the resignation Wednesday of Joe Miniace.
McKenna had been the PMA’s chief operating officer since joining the Association in July. Before that, he was vice president of CSX Lines, now Horizon Lines.
The PMA is an association of shipping lines and terminal facilities formed to negotiate contracts in its members’ interests with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, which negotiates on behalf of West Coast port labor.
“My resignation was not a sudden move,” Miniace told Shippers’ News Wire. “I hired Jim McKenna with the intent that he would follow me as president and CEO if our board approved, which it did unanimously.”
Miniace led the PMA through contentious contract negotiations in 2002 which led to the shutdown of West Coast ports.
Steve Stallone, a spokesman for the ILWU said, “Miniace’s confrontational style didn’t suit the ILWU. We’re willing to deal with whoever is heading the PMA. It’s been obvious that McKenna was picked to follow Miniace. There’s been a real turnover at the PMA. All the veterans are gone.”
Told of Stallone’s remarks, Miniace said, “I don’t think of my style as being especially confrontational. Maybe others do. The important thing is that there’s not a nickle’s worth of difference between my views and those of Jim McKenna. I’m leaving the PMA in excellent, and if I may say, veteran hands.”
Miniace said he planned to “teach at the university level and write' on labor relations.
