US Rep. Hahn: PMA Actions Call for Federal Investigation

The US Congresswoman Janice Hahn, the representative of California’s 44th District, has called for an investigation into recent activity by the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) during recent labor contract negotiations at West Coast ports.

Congresswoman Hahn urged Federal Maritime Chairman Mario Cordero to investigate actions by the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) during the contract talks with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU).

”I would like the Federal Maritime Commission to look into some of the unilateral actions by PMA in terms of not allowing workers to work evenings and weekends,” said Congresswoman Hahn. ”I would like to see a full investigation so in five years during the next contract negotiations we don’t have that kind of lockdown at our West Coast ports.”

PMA curtailed nighttime, weekend and holiday shifts for the last several weeks of the negotiations, preventing dockworkers from working and causing a massive backlog of containers, according to Hahn.

”PMA’s actions were inexcusable, and I worry that the damage they did will be irreversible,” said Hahn. ”I think it is possible that the business our West Coast ports lost might never come back.”

Later that day Hahn testified before the House Budget Committee and called on her colleagues to increase funding to the nation’s ports by increasing spending of the Harbor Maintenance Tax (HMT) on port infrastructure.

The tax is collected at the nation’s ports and was created to fund port infrastructure maintenance projects; however, for decades this money has been spent on other things, leaving the ports underfunded, according to Hahn.