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OCR for page 59
INTRODUCTION
JAMES H. McJUNKIN
The Port of Long Beach is celebrating its seventy-fifth anniver-
sary and is today the busiest port on the U.S. West Coast. This is
largely due to the fact that the port recognized at the beginning
of the age of containerization that shipping in boxes would prove
the most logical way to increase productivity both in the shipping
industry and in marine terminals. Without pause for nearly a
quarter of a century, the port has created new land and new con-
tainer facilities, replacing breakbulk and antiquated facilities with
state-of-the-art facilities geared to accommodate unprecedented
growth in containerized cargo. In this effort, the port has been
quite successful. Fifteen years ago, the Port of Long Beach han-
died about 40,000 TEUs per year. In 1985, the port handled a
little over 1,100,000 TEUs.
Major projects under way include:
1. The creation of a new 85-acre container terminal on Pier
A. This has involved tearing down 5 warehouses and transit sheds
James H. McJunkin is executive director of the Port of Long Beach,
California.
59
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60
and creating 24 acres of landfill. This new terminal will be ready
for occupancy in June 1986. This will bring the total container
area to well over 500 acres and the crane number to 25.
2. A joint development plan, developed by the Port of Long
Beach and the Port of Los Angeles, calls for creating another 4.5
square miles of land seaward from the present harbor by the year
2000. Considering the enormous cost of dredge and fill construc-
tion in 50 to 60 feet of water, emphasis on productivity is essential
to make these new facilities profitable.
The technological revolution in cargo handling of the past 25
years has caused cargo equipment to be improved to a remarkable
degree. Perhaps the capability of today's equipment even out-
strips the capability of management and labor to use it to its full
potential. The next great revolution in the industry is likely to be
directed to human relations and human resources. Now that we
have extremely efficient equipment in place in our terminals we
need to learn to increase productivity through better application
of training and skills. We should not forget that it is our work
force that has built our ports into their present position in world
commerce.
The human relations revolution will be made up of a series of
simple, straightforward innovations. The Port of Long Beach, for
example, has recently begun discussions with the International
Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union Local 13 to identify
potential cooperative efforts in facilities development, the intro-
duction of new waterfront technology, development of a safer work-
ing environment, and increased productivity. In other words, the
port is working with the union as well as with management. Sev-
eral years ago, the port created committees under its auspices to
provide a forum for terminal operators, steamship lines, and others
to discuss and work out solutions of various problems jointly. The
port has also convened a series of terminal operations seminars,
which have had hundreds of participants. On behalf of its ten-
ants, the port has tried to improve the efficiency of U.S. Customs
services. It has also brought terminal operators and the trucking
industry together to address methods of easing gate congestion.
These are the kinds of modest, incremental, problem-specific ef-
forts that need attention.
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61
Thoughtful use of our highly skilled work force to cope with
an ever-changing working environment should head our priorities.
Without improvements in human productivity (management as
well as labor), our sophisticated terminal equipment will continue
to operate at only a fraction of its potential. This is a price the
United States cannot afford to pay.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
human relations
