The Lake Charles Port Board voted on Monday to approve year licenses for all five stevedoring companies that operate at the port after deferring the item at a Feb. 13 board meeting.
A number of representatives from the International Longshoremen’s Association, a labor union with three local chapters, asked the board on Feb. 13 not to approve the license for Gulf Stream Marine, the port’s newest stevedoring company, because it didn’t use local labor.
Gulf Stream has only operated at the port for a year and during that time only handled one shipment, the weekend of Feb. 11. As the only one of the port’s five stevedoring companies that doesn’t use union labor, Gulf Stream hired outside workers instead of local longshoreman for the job.
ILA representatives voiced concern at the Feb. 13 meeting that the Houston-based company would continue to win bids without hiring locals and asked the port not to renew the license. Since a few board members were out that day and the board wanted to give each member a chance to vote, it deferred all license renewals until a special meeting, later scheduled for Monday.
Lash Chretien, president of Local 1998 of the ILA, told board members Monday that he had met with Gulf Stream representatives within the last two weeks and was encouraged by their feedback. He said Gulf Stream seemed willing to make a deal with the union.
Chretien said he also realizes that Gulf Stream could bring good jobs into the port that could actually help local workers.
“It’ll be a plus for us and a plus for the port,” Chretien said.
Raymond Dallas, president of Local 247 of the ILA, said he looked forward to the possibility of working with Gulf Stream.
“That’s all we’re asking for is that they use local workforce,” Dallas said. “We’re just looking to come up with an agreement that brings back jobs.”
Tony Sayorski, chief operating officer at Gulf Stream, said the company’s plan is to hire local labor in the future. The only question, he said, is whether Gulf Stream can reach an agreement with the ILA on hiring terms such as pay.
Sayorski aid Gulf Stream was relieved to have the license passed so that it could begin securing more jobs at the port this year.
Bill Rase, port executive director, said each company has a strong track record, including Gulf Stream.
“Gulf Stream itself is a very highly sought out company that has a strong financial background and a very strong safety record and has been able to operate in several ports successfully,” Rase said. He said Gulf Stream has been able to add jobs and opportunities to many ports and that he expects it will do the same here.
Rase said the reason Gulf Stream only had one project this year was that a number of local industrial projects were delayed. But he said the port expects that trend to reverse very soon.
“All of these (stevedoring companies) are going to be interesting over the next four or five years because we’re hoping that 70 and 80 percent of projects will move forward, especially now that oil has stabilized itself,” Rase said.
He expects that Gulf Stream will end up finding a way to use local labor because it’ll save them money in travel fair, he said, but only if it could reach an agreement with the ILA.
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