Terminal operators at West Coast ports say longshore workers are slowing down work to win leverage in contract talks. Now exports of potatoes appear to be part of the collateral damage.
Potato farmers from the Columbia River basin to the Skagit Valley are increasingly facing problems. Matt Harris with the Washington State Potato Commission says farmers are trying to ship potatoes — fresh, frozen and dehydrated — everywhere from Taiwan to Vietnam, to Korea.
“We had one company call, whose 25 percent of their business in the Columbia basin is export and they ship anywhere from 50 to 70 containers a week, ground to a halt,” Harris said.
Harris says this is the busy season for potato growers.
A spokesman for the longshore workers union, Craig Merrilees, won’t directly confirm that the workers have deliberately slowed down operations. But he does say the workers have been unhappy for months because he says the employers aren’t providing enough trucks to haul the containers away quickly.
“Employers are claiming there are slowdowns, and it’s entirely believable if you take into account just how frustrated workers are with the tremendous congestion problems that the employers have created for themselves and refused to address for many, many months,” Merrilees said.
The employers group says the truck shortage has been a problem in Southern California but not here in Seattle and Tacoma. The two sides have been meeting this week and over the weekend in negotiations. Harris says the potato commission has contacted the governor’s trade office and lawmakers in Washington to try to urge a resolution.
