Unions and the Long Beach, California, port terminal are collaborating to create the world’s first zero-emissions facility. In order to do so, they have secured a $30 million grant from Joe Biden’s administration, which is part of the 2022 Port Infrastructure Development Program. The funds will be used to purchase 60 electric yard tractors. These tractors must be operated by humans, rather than automated. In an era of energy transition and increasing automation, unions worry that lost jobs will be the result. By prioritizing jobs as US employers adopt green technology, the value of the workforce can be maintained.
The transportation sector is the largest contributor of greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change. In response, ports are replacing diesel equipment with cleaner electric models and are adopting new automation technology to process more cargo. Automation in the port sector is rapidly increasing, with only 4% of global container terminal capacity coming from partially automated facilities, according to a 2021 report from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s International Transport Forum.
Long Beach Container Terminal has bet on both electric power and automated equipment for its redevelopment, which has combined two aged terminals into one. The new facility now handles three times more volume and has reduced emissions by 90%. However, with the new technology, some workers have lost their jobs. The Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), which represents West Coast dock workers, found that the Long Beach terminal had 392 fewer jobs than it would have had if it were not automated. On the other hand, a competing report by the Pacific Maritime Association employer group found that paid hours at the automated Long Beach terminal and another in Los Angeles grew 31.5% from 2015, the last year before automated operations, through 2021.
Electrification cuts emissions, and automation reduces labor costs. However, ITF’s 2021 report and a 2018 research from McKinsey &https://adarima.org/?aHR0cHM6Ly9tY3J5cHRvLmNsdWIvY2F0ZWdvcnJ5Lz93cHNhZmVsaW5rPWVPTXRPMFI4dXh3QXBic0NhZGZFZUZsZ2lIbmlrWW1ORmJrTnpNVzlpTjJ0alp5czBOSGhLZDJRM1FUMDk-038; Co found that automated ports are not more productive than their labor-based counterparts. That is because automated operations may not boost performance enough to justify the heftier equipment costs and because fixed automated systems cannot expand and contract with cargo fluctuations like human crews.
Despite this, the Long Beach terminal’s payroll is larger now than before its redevelopment began about a decade ago. The terminal’s commitment to the union was that “while there was some erosion of some typical longshore jobs, there would be creation of new jobs,” according to CEO Anthony Otto. The drivers of the 60 new electric yard tractors will be among the workers who will labor alongside more than 100 automated vehicles and 70 driverless container-stacking cranes. The Long Beach terminal aims to be emissions-free by 2030.
Jaime Hipsher, an ILWU tractor driver at the twin Long Beach and Los Angeles ports, said in an interview last summer she had seen the employment impacts from energy use changes and the embrace of automation. Her father was an ILWU worker at a coal processing facility serving the ports, which was eliminated. She believes that electrification should not necessarily be connected with automation.
In conclusion, the Long Beach, California, port terminal aims to become the world’s first zero-emissions facility. While electrification and automation reduce emissions and labor costs, respectively, they may also lead to fewer jobs. However, Biden’s administration hopes to prioritize jobs as US employers adopt green technology. As the transportation sector is the largest contributor of greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change, ports must find ways to replace diesel equipment with cleaner electric models and adopt new automation technology to process more cargo. In doing so, they must also balance the value of the workforce.
