UFLPA Region Notice for MID’s
In a Memo to Clients earlier this week, we wrote about U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s new instructions about adding a postal code to MID’s from sources in China. The deployment has been indefinitely postponed, but CBP has issued an alert to explain why this new requirement is being initiated. This notice can be found on CBP’s website.
Work Disruption in Ports of Oakland, Stockton, and West Sacramento
There was a walk out by the ILWU’s clerks on Wednesday in Northern California that was honored by ILWU employees in those ports. There was a complaint by a clerk about not being properly reimbursed for travel time. Most marine terminals in Stockton, West Sacramento, and Oakland were shut down but fortunately, labor came back to work starting with the evening shifts.
If the ILWU-PMA contract had been in place, this would not have happened. Under the ILWU-PMA contract when local disputes arise, they are sent to the local arbitrator who can quickly render a decision, in which the union or the management usually complies with without further challenge. Arbitration can happen quickly, and terminal operations can continue uninterrupted but without a contract there is no mechanism to rapidly resolve matters and prevent a local from walking out for even the most minor complaint until a contract is signed.