Tacoma port workers sound alarm over efforts to automate jobs
Port workers are sounding the alarm over an effort to automate certain jobs at the Port of Tacoma.
A proposal from Husky Terminal, the company that operates a terminal out of the Port of Tacoma, seeks to deploy new technology that would automate the identification of shipping containers – a job that union workers do. Leaders with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 23 say the proposal could open the port to cybersecurity attacks, and, if deployed, could result in a reduction of anywhere from 20 to 25 jobs.
Husky Terminal did not return a request for comment from The News Tribune.
Husky’s request to install the technology makes the case that it would make work at the port more efficient and productive and would cost the company $400,000.
Jared Faker, president of ILWU Local 23, said the technology would replace the jobs of marine clerks, people who are responsible for tracking and managing the movement of cargo to and from vessels that arrive at the port. He said the union feels Husky’s efforts to implement the technology is the company’s first step in fully automating work that human port workers do at the port.
“Automation is generally not just the flip of a switch that happens overnight, it’s a function here and a function there, kind of behind the scenes, under everybody’s radar, until enough of those functions are in place that allow a company to fully automate – to displace all of their human workers,” Faker told The News Tribune.
ILWU Local 23 started a petition to call for port commissioners to block Husky’s request to implement the technology, which as of May 7 had over 4,500 signatures. The petition states that Husky is using artificial intelligence to help implement the automation, but the company’s request to install the technology doesn’t directly state that it’s doing so. Faker said the union is interpreting the request to mean Husky is using AI.
Melanie Stambaugh Babst, communications director for the Northwest Seaport Alliance, said requests like the one Husky Terminal made don’t go before port commissioners for approval. It’s staff at the agency who manage the process instead, she told The News Tribune.
The Port of Tacoma is an independent municipal corporation that is governed by an elected board of commissioners that has the power to levy taxes.
“The Port of Tacoma levies a property tax (at less than the maximum allowed by law) that is only used for debt repayment, environmental projects and transportation investments. The tax levy is not used for Port operations,” according to the Port of Tacoma website.
Faker said having more employees at the port provides an indirect benefit to the port itself. Those employees often live in Pierce County, and their taxes help pay for the port’s operations. Those employees also take their salaries and spend them at businesses in Tacoma, which bolsters the city’s economy.
Losing port workers means losing those benefits, Faker said.
“I’m employed by the citizens of Pierce County, and so being a public employee, if I’m being asked to install devices that are going to eliminate jobs, it just doesn’t feel right at all,” said Dax Koho, a mechanic with ILWU Local 22.
He also said that adding more technology to the port’s operations opens up the port to cyberattacks.
“Anytime there’s an outside line, that’s just something else you have to defend,” Koho told The News Tribune.
The Port of Tacoma has largely avoided automation, Koho said – until now.
“For us, it feels like we’ve got this dam that doesn’t crack,” he said.
