Occupy Oakland shuts port, Maersk, APL pull boxes to stop reefers exploding

ANTI-CAPITALIST "Occupy Oakland" protesters made good on their threat to shut down the port, despite action by major container shipping lines to ensure their refrigerated containers are safe after explosions killed three dockers in Vietnam and Brazil.

But fears of exploding reefer boxes had already prompted longshore walkouts at US west coast ports. Then "Occupy Oakland" movement declared it would picket the port. The dockers union, the most leftist in the US, said it would not cross a "community picket line with a serious number of people with goals that don`t conflict with labour".


Since then, thousands of Occupy Oakland protesters mobbed the port and shut it down. "Maritime area operations will resume when it is safe to do so," said port officials said in a statement.


International Longshore and Warehouse Union spokesman Craig Merrilees said the port had shut down. "Nothing is coming in or out of here," he said.


Maersk said it removed all 844 reefer boxes in its fleet that have been working upgrading the repair or maintenance of gas systems in Vietnam since February.


APL removed 103 reefer boxes for inspection and put restrictions on where all its reefer containers can go for maintenance and repair. APL handles 50,000 reefers worldwide, reported Newark`s Journal of Commerce.


"We have reviewed our inspection records and procedures and are fully confident that our refrigerated containers are safe and in cargo-worthy condition," said APL reefer chief, vice president Eric Eng.


Other measures include plugging in refrigerated units before dispatching them to customers at which point they would be thoroughly checked.


Earlier, Oakland dockers refused to unload reefer boxes. Port authorities in Seattle and Tacoma were working with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), the group representing the shipping lines, and the United States Coast Guard, according to a KING5 news broadcast.


"New procedures are now in place to quarantine suspect refrigerated containers until it is proved they have not passed through Vietnam since the beginning of 2011, or are rendered safe," said the report.


The ILWU is worried about extending the danger beyond the ports if the reefers are not stopped at the dock and checked out.


The PMA is working with ILWU to stipulate measures for workers` protection without disturbing port operations. An agreement has reached in Los Angeles-Long Beach, and PMA is working on similar deal with the union in Oakland, Seattle and Tacoma.


Since all indications point to maintenance work conducted on reefers processed at Cat Lai in Vietnam, said PMA, all refrigerated boxes that have passed through any port in Vietnam are being identified on arrival at west coast ports and those reefers that have been worked on in Cat Lai are isolated for special handling.