Chill wind blows on LA’s waterfront

[RedEarth]

Chill wind blows on LA’s waterfront
By Matthew Garrahan in Los Angeles

Published: December 21 2008 18:03 | Last updated: December 21 2008 18:03

Nursing a cup of strong coffee in a cafe near the port in Los Angeles, Esther Hudak is explaining how the world trade slump has hit her job prospects. “In 2006 I was working four or five times a week,” she says. “I got out once last month.”

More than 40 per cent of US imports come through the San Pedro Bay ports at Los Angeles and nearby Long Beach, which have boomed for 30 years in line with the emergence of China as the world’s dominant manufacturing power.

But the volume of goods coming into the two ports has declined sharply. It is quiet round the Los Angeles facility: streets would normally be packed with trucks taking freight to distribution centres inland, but traffic is scarce and the dozens of hammerhead cranes that unload the ships stand idle.

The recession gripping the US has had a devastating impact on consumer spending, which has hit imports at the southern California ports. For members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union such as Ms Hudak, the slump means looking for work elsewhere.

About 9,000 ILWU members in Los Angeles and Long Beach work on a casual basis. “When the economy was doing well, the port was too and so were we,” says Ms Hudak. “But everyone is looking for other jobs.”

The worsening employment picture is yet more bad news for the California economy which is struggling with the collapse of the housing market, spiralling mortgage foreclosures and a budget deficit that is forecast to hit $42bn by 2010.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d5680c34-cf87-11dd-abf9-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1

[opihimoimoi]

1. Bush and GOP had 8 years to fix the damn thing...instead...they made it worse

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. The whole point of the NAFTA Super Highway was to kill the port unions.

And the Teansters.

Yet I still hear people saying the damn thing does not exist !



good news: the economic downturn has affected current plans to build this transport route.

[2Design]

3. interesting map n/t