(The following story by Joe Ruff appeared on the Omaha World-Herald website on May 8.)
OMAHA, Neb. — Some customers of Union Pacific Railroad have not been able to ship goods for two days to Oakland, Calif., because independent truckers protesting rates they are paid in the face of record fuel prices have slowed work at the major seaport.
The truckers are not Union Pacific employees or contractors, limiting the Omaha-based railroad’s influence in the situation. Motor carrier firms acting as brokers often pay the truckers.
Bob Morgan, a manager for short line Iowa Interstate Railroad in Council Bluffs, said about 30 containers bound for Oakland that Iowa Interstate normally would load onto Union Pacific cars were not shipped Tuesday. Those containers, which hold a variety of goods that could include tractor parts, soybeans and other agricultural products, remained in Council Bluffs, Morgan said.
Customers did not try to deliver goods to the Council Bluffs yard Wednesday because they knew Union Pacific had stopped shipping items there to Oakland. About 30 to 40 containers are shipped out each day, Morgan said.
Zoe Richmond, a spokeswoman for Union Pacific, said some business was being conducted at the Oakland port, but it had slowed. The impact might be likened to a derailment that backs up traffic, she said.
The railroad was working with its customers to mitigate the hardship, and it was evaluating its options, including having containers shipped to other ports, such as Los Angeles or Seattle, Richmond said.
One difficulty Wednesday was that the railroad didn’t know how long the protest might last, Richmond said.
Miki Christiansen, a dispatcher with trucking firm Irish Tiger Express in Omaha, said her company’s drivers were not involved in the strike, but Irish Tiger had to leave two loads of industrial goods in its yard Tuesday because Union Pacific would not take them out of Council Bluffs.
“The longer they’re on strike, the more it’s going to affect,” Christiansen said. “We deliver dog food, cat food, toys – China is a big importer.”
Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. spokesman Steven Forsberg said his company does more business out of Los Angeles and Seattle than it does out of Oakland. BNSF was getting most of its loads out of Oakland, as well, Forsberg said.
Trucks are critical to short-haul delivery of goods because they take items to and from ships and businesses that railroads serve.
Oakland is the third-busiest port in California. Lathrop, a smaller inland facility, also has been affected. Several hundred protesters have been involved with the strike. Some have interfered with truck traffic and some have been truckers who would have been hauling freight in and out of Union Pacific’s facility, Richmond said.
West Coast ports have seen other protests over the past week, including thousands of dock workers taking the day off May 1 in what the Longshore and Warehouse Union called a protest of the war in Iraq. The union also is in contract negotiations with the Pacific Maritime Association, a group that includes cargo carriers and terminal operators.