Local 7’s years-long efforts pay off with new regular cargo service
Pensioners lend their knowledge as Bellingham recovers from 20-year downturn
Members of Local 7 in Bellingham serviced the Blue Everton on the first of many voyages to load scrap metal so that it can be recycled overseas.
When the Blue Everton bulk carrier arrived at the Port of Bellingham on October 15 and Local 7 loaded the vessel with recycled metals, the event marked the beginning of a new era – and the end of a 20-year drought of regular service at the U.S. West Coast’s northernmost port.
“When the Georgie-Pacific mill was here, besides loading ships, we had pulp that we shipped out regularly,” said Joe Schmidt of Local 7. “This will be the first time in years we’ve had a steady stream of cargo in Bellingham.”
Schmidt said the ILWU pensioners are helping get the younger members of the local up to speed.
“It’s a pretty big deal, really, and there are growing pains that go with it. We’re starting all over again,” Schmidt said. “All of the pensioners are helping us out with any questions we have about manning, or any other things we run across; we get their opinion all the time. A lot of those guys are the ones that negotiated the deal we have now. It gives insight to our newer members: ‘In this situation, what did we do in the past?’ And the pensioners let us know.”
The company that operates the new service, ABC Recycling, collects and processes scrap metal at nine sites in Western Canada, and chose Bellingham as its U.S. base to export the product overseas. The company made a long-term investment at the port, signing a 15-year lease with a 10-year option.
Schmidt said that when the scrap metal arrives in Bellingham, the ILWU workers move massive piles of the recycled product from trucks and barges, to the company’s lot, and then onto ships which will depart every 6-8 weeks.
The cargo includes “car bodies, I-beams, rebar, sheet metal pieces, wheels, axels, pieces of scaffolding, all kinds of stuff,” he said, and they load shredded metal into the ship first, with heavier grades on top to protect the ship.
“This ship will take 25,000 to 27,000 tons on this trip, and more in the future when the channel is dredged” to allow deeper berths, he said.
Local 7 and the Port of Bellingham have been working for years to reverse the fallout from mill closures. Union officials and members met regularly with the port’s leadership and marketing team, working to acquire equipment such as Liebherr harbor crane, and to upgrade the marine terminal for modern use – all while traveling to other ports for the bulk of their work hours.
The local handles intermittent shipments of forest products, steel, jetty rocks, and other cargoes, and the new recycled metal export shipments add regular service to those efforts. Port documents say ABC’s shipments should soon increase to about 242,000 metric tons annually.
Schmidt said the local is working to increase its numbers and training to meet the demand. “It’s good, but we need more manpower to cover everything. We have three crane drivers and we need eight. We travel people in from Everett, Olympia, Port Gamble. It’ll be pretty steady, and sounds like it will keep growing.”
“It’s huge for us and for the community,” Schmidt said.
