![]() While I don’t have an action button, I have a shortcut in my doc that is similar. Maybe this is so 2021 to everyone else, but it’s recently made my life easier: “If we don’t do something fast,” he said, “we are jeopardizing the fluidity of the movement of cargo.Listening to episode 139, which was great, and inspired me to share this. “We got to keep it rolling.”Ĭordero endorsed the need for immediate dockworker vaccinations. “But I don’t want to wait until it’s too late and then say, ‘Now we’ve got to shut this thing down,’” Seroka said. Neither Seroka nor Mario Cordero, executive director of the Port of Long Beach, said they expect any imminent terminal shutdowns. But McKenna said those percentages are unreliable because workers with negative tests may not be entering their information in the portal. McKenna disputed the number of dockworkers currently idled by the pandemic, saying that the 1,800 cited by the ILWU, port executives and elected officials represents a total for all California ports and includes workers on leave for other illnesses.Īccording to the longshore union, the positivity rate, which measures the prevalence of infections when compared with the number of tests, is 65% for the Port of Los Angeles and 71% for the Long Beach port. The county does not track infections by occupation because the data are limited, she said. “We investigate all outbreaks,” she said. James McKenna, president and chief executive of the maritime association, said: “There’s probably a chance that have underreported.” After receiving the letter, he added, his group “reiterated with them they need to report on an ongoing basis and a timely basis.”Īsked about enforcement, Ferrer said if workers have concerns about serious violations at their sites, they can report them to the health department anonymously both online and through the department’s call center (88). “The vast majority of terminal operators are failing to report at all.” “This is not being done by terminal operators at the San Pedro Bay port complex,” the representatives wrote. Under Los Angeles County regulations, if a workplace has three or more confirmed COVID-19 cases in 14 days, the employer must immediately notify the county public health department. In a letter this week to the maritime association, three presidents of Southern California ILWU locals said a single terminal, Fenix Marine Services, out of the twin ports’ 12 terminals has reported an outbreak since the beginning of the pandemic, involving 15 workers. According to the ILWU, of the 694 dockworkers who reported COVID-19 infections as of Jan. Longshore workers report infections through a portal operated jointly by the ILWU and the Pacific Maritime Assn., which represents terminal employers. Newsom’s office did not respond to a request for comment on dockworker vaccinations. Port executives, union leaders and local elected officials want dockworkers to be eligible for vaccines after medical and other front-line workers. About 450,000 Los Angeles County healthcare workers still need to be vaccinated and other groups will move up in priority once those workers receive their shots - probably not until early February. So far healthcare workers, first responders and residents and staff in skilled nursing facilities are first in line. ![]() The state determines vaccine priority, Ferrer said. “We haven’t seen a longshore worker get a vaccine yet.” Seroka said logistics companies, port directors and officials with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union “have worked every angle possible” since December to get help with testing and vaccinating dockworkers. The ports, they wrote, “are deemed critical infrastructure for national security purposes and medical supplies for the pandemic.” Pandemic equipment imports from Asia, including masks, sanitizer and ventilators for hospitals and other businesses across the nation, flow mostly through the Los Angeles and Long Beach complex. Gavin Newsom and Mark Ghaly, California’s health and human services secretary, urging them to speed up the vaccination of Southern California’s 15,000 dockworkers “as soon as possible.” The warning from the two members of Congress came days after Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia and other local officials wrote Gov. “This would be disastrous not only for the communities of the South Bay, but also the entire nation which relies upon the vital flow of goods through these ports.” Alan Lowenthal (D-Long Beach) wrote to California and Los Angeles County health officials on Jan. Nanette Diaz Barragan (D-San Pedro) and Rep. “Without immediate action, terminals at the largest port complex in America may face the very real danger of terminal shutdowns,” Rep.
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