Currently, there are approximately 43 million shipping containers across the globe.

Of those 43 million containers, however, only 23 million are being used for transport or other practical usage. The majority of the 23 million “active” containers in the pool are standard 20’ and 40’ containers, which are the workhorses of the industry

 

A 20’ or 40’ container (also known as a box) is the same in Singapore, Shanghai, Rotterdam, Hamburg, Long Beach, or Newark. These common sizes allow for worldwide standardization of port gantries and cranes, their cradles, the “slots” on ships that move containers and storage. Containers transport the imports and exports that help make our economies run. 

This standardization is great, but it relies exclusively on the men and women who run all aspects of a highly complex system. Many of these people on the ground are Union members with families, mortgages, cars, and obligations like the rest of us. However, what makes these professionals different is that they are highly trained and do a very dangerous job requiring special skills because the containers are often filled with millions of dollars of valuable cargo. A mishandled or dropped container, in the worst instance, can kill.

In the United States, the ILA (International Longshoremen’s Association) is responsible for loading and unloading ships and moving containers in many port terminals. Interestingly, the ILA is the largest AFL-CIO maritime union with 65,000 members. The ILA was organized in 1892, has 200 Local Affiliates and serves exclusively in 100 seaports. The ILA, liner and terminal companies work together under the “Master Agreement” When Unions strike, factories start to shut down and store shelves become bare, affecting everyone. The importance of the workers at the ports and their correlation to the smooth running of our economy and our lives is obvious. If the ILA doesn’t make the system work, the system becomes dysfunctional. Gridlock points make or break any system.

Containerization changed the world;

“Today’s system is like a symphony — there are lots of instruments in the orchestra, but the instruments need musicians, including the conductor, to make the music. When we listen to a symphony, we hear music, but how many of us think about the musicians who make the music while enjoying their music?” said Percy R. Pyne IV, founding partner of Green Shipping Line (GSL).

The point being, it’s time that we think about the container system holistically, especially as the incremental union labor cost in a container’s journey is negligible – just a fraction of the cost of the entire process of moving a container from one port to another. Better we start to understand what is and is not essential!

The people who keep the system moving are a critical, if not the critical link in the process.