Outsourcing is not the answer: The Panama Canal Authority wants to outsource tugboat jobs, one of many flawed ideas proposed in recent years.
Union officials in Panama and the United States joined together in early March to criticize plans by the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) that call for outsourcing tugboat operations.
The ILWU International Union and its affiliate, the Panama Canal Pilots Union, joined with the Masters, Mates and Pilots union (MM&P) and their affiliate UCOC, and the Marine Engineers’ Beneficial Association (MEBA) with their Panamanian affiliate UIM – in a show of solidarity for the Panamanian union of tugboat captains (UCOC).
The Tugboat Captains have been waging a battle for at least three years against the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) which is pushing plans to outsource tugboat jobs to an Venezuelan outfit, the Meyers Group. ILWU International Vice President (Mainland) Ray Familathe attended the meeting along with Alvaro Moreno, General Secretary of the Panama Canal Pilots Union. After union leaders finished their discussions, they issued a joint statement condemning the Canal’s outsourcing plan, noting that it jeopardizes good local jobs, worker safety and security for one of the world’s most strategic waterways.
Canal management has been under pressure to increase the number of large “neo-Panamax” vessels transiting the newly expanded canal from the current 7 per day to 8, because they charge roughly $800,000 for each vessel that transits the canal. Problems with the newly expanded canal have plagued the project from beginning and continue to the present. The winning bid came from a consortium led by a nearly bankrupt Spanish firm that collaborated with a Panamanian company having close ties to former
Canal officials. After winning the construction contract with a low bid of $3.1 billion that was one billion under the competition, the project generated more than $3 billion in disputed charges. The design itself was flawed due to insufficient room for tugs to operate in the narrow locks, a situation that demands the highest-skilled, professional operators.
“The Canal Authority excluded unions from participating in the planning and design process, which led to many bad decisions that continue to this day,” said the pilots’ General Secretary Alvaro Moreno. “The proposal to outsource the tug operation is an example of that approach which will cause even more problems,” he said. International Vice President (Mainland) Ray Familathe said,” Our International Union stands in solidarity with all these unions that have come together in Panama. Outsourcing has failed in so many places around the world – and usually ends up enriching company officials and private investors at the expense of the public. We’ll continue to watch this issue and offer our solidarity.”