Lessons from the pandemic must be learned. What the virus has taught us so far is that working in isolation, as an industry or a nation, is no longer a viable alternative. Industry is making moves to co-operate to meet future challenges, but governments are failing the people. Governments are not fit for purpose argues Nick Savvides, Managing Editor at Container News.
This week Federal Maritime Commissioners Carl Bentzel and Daniel Maffei wrote letters to 11 state governors asking them to prioritise port workers for vaccinations, arguing that any disruption to the supply chain could be critical.
[s2If is_user_logged_in()]The latest letter followed a similar plea to the newly incumbent President Joe Biden asking his administration to consider the plight of port workers and their importance to the nation in making sure that critical medical supplies and other goods are allowed to flow into the country. The latest letter may be considered too little too late given that 700 port staff at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have already been diagnosed with Covid-19.
With some 20% of US imports handled at these two key ports, it is no wonder that the commissioners are concerned, not just for the welfare of those working at the port, but for those beyond the terminal boundaries who rely on the supplies of food and medical goods.
“We write regarding the urgent issue of vaccinating the Nation’s maritime workforce as soon as possible. We recommend that this essential workforce be prioritized for vaccinations, and in the interim be given access to rapid testing in order to help minimize workplace disruption, given their critical role in moving medical supplies, personal protective equipment (PPE), and handling what is an unprecedented amount of consumer goods arriving at our gateway ports,” wrote Maffei and Bentzel on 28 January.
Today, with in excess of 40 ships at anchorage in San Pedro Bay, with an estimated aggregate of more than half a million TEU sitting on the water, and more boxes delayed due to lack of port staff, truck drivers, rail services and warehouse space, the letters sent by the commissioners outlining their fears appear justified.
The failure of the US federal authorities to identify port and logistics staff as key workers has reverberated around the world with congestion in Southern California, causing delays to boxes travelling through the supply chain and returning as empties to export destinations in Asia.
Initially this was thought to be the lines prioritising the lucrative Pacific eastbound trade as rates on these services soared to unprecedented levels. Nevertheless, the effect of the critical failure to meet the Covid challenge within the supply chain was to suck ever more equipment into the Asia to US trades, leaving other trades bereft of containers, sending the costs of transporting cargo on the major trades, particularly from Asia to Europe through the roof, reaching a peak of around US$8,400/FEU on the spot market, according to the Freightos Baltic Index (FBX).
A failure in the US to recognise the work of those in the supply chain, meaning all crew, port workers truck drivers and those completing the last mile deliveries, has been matched in Europe where key worker status has been bestowed on those that work in the medical profession. It was always correct to give hospital staff this recognition, the failure was, and remains, that governments around the world refuse to see the contribution that others have made.
In the UK the most recent manifestation of this government failure to recognise the work performed by those in the thick of the battle against the pandemic was the paltry 1%, below inflation, pay increase offered to nurses. So appalled are the nursing staff by the slap in the face from those in authority that for the first time in their history nurses are considering strike action.
In our industry workers have also been making sacrifices with the well documented failure to help approaching a half a million-crew stranded on vessels, unable to go home for more than a year in some cases.
Governments in many of the wealthier nations have been urging companies to collaborate to find efficiencies in the supply chain, to meet surging demand, and to implement the digital advances that will benefit us all. Yet governments have failed to meet their obligations of collaborating to battle the pandemic, preferring in many cases to protect their own people, not recognising that by helping other less fortunate than their own wealthy country, would benefit their own people too.
It is crucial that we recognise that as we enter the end game for this pandemic in richer countries, many around the globe will still be suffering. And without wanting to devalue the experience of those people, it is critical that governments recognise the failures of this worldwide event to bring about better solutions for the next planet-wide event.
This may be another pandemic, of that we cannot be certain. What we can be certain about is that climate change is a global issue and only global governance and co-operation among people can resolve the issues we face.
It is likely that the richer countries will again escape much of the real pain of climate change, but in this scenario this is not a solution, what happens in the wilds of Amazonia, the Polar regions and Siberia will affect the islands of Micronesia and the citadels in Brussels, Washington and Beijing equally, eventually.
In shipping moves to collaborate have already been seen to tackle climate change. There has been a proliferation of moves to collaborate to deal with the challenge of the climate crisis.
It may have been a consequence of the pandemic that these moves have been made. A realisation that we can no longer operate in isolation that has spurred the industry to come together to try and mitigate the effects on key supply chain workers, particularly crew on board ships. This is not to look at shipping as a perfect world, far from it, but to recognise the efforts that have been and continue to be made to solve problems collectively.
Without undermining these efforts what has become clear is the critical need for governments to match those efforts on the regulatory level otherwise collaboration around the world, while necessary, will fail.
One of the major lessons of the pandemic, particularly for those in western democracies, but for other governments too, is the willingness of their people to meet the challenges together, while their leaders dither and delay. In western democracies this is often due to the short-termism in government, with leaders that only view the period for which they are elected as critical, creating policy aimed at re-election rather than real change. Or worse policy that serves the interest of a few.
Policy created for four or five years is not going to solve the climate crisis, nor will it see us through the next pandemic, critically an interconnected world needs interconnected governance, free from the bonds of vested interest and the self-serving, egotistical leadership of the past.
In many respects shipping is already a leader in this field of global communalism. Organisations such as the Missions to Seamen, Container Shipping Supporting Seamen and many others are looking after crew who already work together in close proximity, from whatever nation they are from.
That co-operation seen in many cases at the granular level must be brought to the leadership to show what real collaboration means, how to build connections with our neighbours and also those further away.
In my 30 years reporting on the shipping industry, what has struck me is that while I travel and see and hear people from many countries discuss others in nations far away, sometimes in a derogatory way, often those in shipping have not shown such tendencies. There are instances of great camaraderie, recognising each other’s values and their contribution.
Communities within the maritime industry are a great lesson for us all and must be a beacon for wider change to meet the challenges that we face, today and in the future.
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