Decisive union vote cuts the chances that our stuff will be trapped at the port

Too hot to do any Big Thought lifting? How about some compact thoughts instead:

▪ For the Tacoma-Pierce County economy, the most significant vote of the last week was not found in the results of Tuesday’s primary election.

Instead that designation would go to voting by members of the International Longshore & Warehouse Union at 29 West Coast ports on a three-year extension to the existing contract, taking it to 2022.

The union reported that early returns suggest the contract extension has been approved by 67 percent of those voting. If that margin holds, it’s a welcome piece of news, because it indicates strong sentiment in favor rather than a sharply divided membership, which would have been the case had the vote been more on the order of 52-48 percent in favor.

Even more welcome, though, is that the West Coast ports, including Tacoma and Seattle, get an additional three years of labor peace, in theory anyway.

The whole point of the contract extension with the Pacific Maritime Association (representing shipping companies and terminal operators) was to avoid a repeat of the 2014-15 port slowdown, which saw cargo idling for days to be loaded and unloaded.

The hit was substantial, in the form of millions of dollars lost by shippers, and reputational, by making Canadian, Gulf and East Coast ports more attractive as efficient and reliable options.

It won’t be all rainbows and lollipops for the next five years. Short-term disputes are always possible.

Ocean shipping is going through a particularly stormy period of financial pressure, changes in cargo volumes and consolidation. The competitive threats from those other ports didn’t go away. And there are some huge long-term issues to be dealt with, such as port capacity reductions and automation.

But the parties involved have some time and a less charged environment in which to deal with those issues, and if they’re smart, they’ll start tackling them now.

We might be a ways off from the days when a pilotless ship’s containers are unloaded by autonomous cranes and carriers to be placed on driverless trucks – but that future is already peaking over the horizon.

▪ Speaking of voting, it turns out that even in Seattle and King County voters still have the capacity to say “no thanks” to a proposed tax increase.

They turned down a proposed tenth-of-a-percentage-point increase in the sales tax to provide money to arts and cultural organizations.

There’s precedent for it. In 2003, Seattle voters rejected what was then known as the latte tax, a 10-cent-per-cup assessment on espresso drinks.

But with the influx of new residents since then, and the leftward drift of the city and the county, the concern was that appeals that “it’s just a tiny increase” or “it’s for the children” in a mid-summer off-year election would see it through.

It’s dangerous to read too much into one vote. This doesn’t signal the start of the Great Western Washington Voters’ Tax Revolt. That pronouncement will have to await an accumulation of votes not only on the increases themselves but also on council and legislative races and the next Tim Eyman initiative.

But rest assured voters, you won’t be running out of opportunities to tell the world what you really think of tax increases.

▪ Tacoma’s contribution to the retailing world, Costco co-founder Jeff Brotman, died last week at age 74, prompting some reflection on the company’s remarkable story.

Remarkable, in several respects.

Not many retailers have customers forking over money for the privilege of setting foot inside the stores. Costco does (Amazon sort of does too, with its Prime program).

Not many retailers can not only withstand but better the giant of the sector, Walmart. Costco has. On an overall basis Walmart is bigger, but in the warehouse category Walmart’s Sam’s Club has perennially been the Avis to Costco’s Hertz, if that’s not too dated a reference.

Walmart is trying frenetically to catch up to Amazon in the online category. Costco is also in competition with Amazon – these days, who isn’t? – but outwardly at least it doesn’t appear to have a fixation with out-Amazoning its rival online.

Yes, you can shop online at Costco; you can also buy Costco’s Kirkland-brand products on Amazon. Or you can always go to the store, load up the oversized car and lug the stuff home yourself. The financials, and the packed parking lots on weekends, would suggest that model still works.

They probably didn’t have it mind when they opened the first Costco in 1983, but Brotman and co-founder Jim Sinegal managed to pioneer not only a new retailing model but also a company that could take on the retailing world’s two giants – and continue to thrive.

This story was originally published August 5, 2017 at 3:18 PM with the headline "Decisive union vote cuts the chances that our stuff will be trapped at the port."