The Port Alden Harbor Authority signed a ten-year cargo handling contract Tuesday with Meridian Shipping Lines that will bring two additional container ships a week to the east quay starting in March. It will also bring four automated cranes, replacing machines that have been operated by hand since the quay was rebuilt in 1998.
The deal is the largest in the port's history by shipping volume, and port officials have promoted it publicly as a win for the local economy, projecting 60 million dollars a year in added cargo fees over the life of the contract. What officials have said less about is what the automation clause means for the roughly 40 crane operators currently working the east quay.
Under the contract, two of the quay's four cranes will be replaced with automated units within eighteen months, with the remaining two converted by year four. The union representing crane operators says the timeline effectively eliminates a third of its jobs on that quay by the contract's midpoint.
What the contract actually says
A copy of the contract obtained by the Ledger shows the automation requirement was written into the deal at Meridian's request, not proposed by the port authority. Meridian's larger vessels, the contract states, require crane cycle times the current hand-operated equipment cannot consistently meet, particularly during the night shifts when the new schedule adds most of its volume.
Port authority director Wendell Cho said the trade-off was unavoidable. "We had a choice between this contract, with automation, and no contract at all," Cho said. "Meridian was clear that the cranes were not negotiable. The jobs question is real, and we are not pretending otherwise."
What happens to the operators
The contract includes a retraining fund of 2.4 million dollars, administered jointly by the port authority and the operators' union, intended to move displaced crane operators into other port roles, including crane maintenance and logistics coordination. Union officials say the fund covers roughly half the workers likely to be displaced, based on current wage levels and training program costs.
"Half a solution is not a solution for the other half," said union local president Grace Onyekwere. "We are grateful the fund exists. We are also going to be at every council meeting between now and March asking where the other twenty jobs go.
The council has scheduled a public briefing on the contract for next month, though the deal itself does not require council approval, since the harbor authority operates with independent contracting power under the city charter.
