SEATTLE - The Northern Precision is a big ship from China. It holds the equivalent of 4,000 twenty-foot long containers filled with merchandise ranging from electronics to toys, shoes, clothing and more.
On this shift, some 80 to 100 members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 19 are busy loading and unloading it. This one port call creates requires four shifts and results in roughly 400 jobs.
To the Longshore union, jobs are one way to measure economic activity. A job is just this: Get dispatched from the hall, work a shift, go home. That's a job. Most last from one day and can go four or more days. With luck, tomorrow will bring another ship and another job, and then the day after that still yet another job and so on.
A year ago on the waterfront, jobs were down, even for the most senior members of the union, so called "A" men. In other words hours worked were down. For casual workers, people who usually have another means of support but look to the union to pick up extra work loading and unloading ships, work was down a lot.
"The casuals are the people who suffered, and suffered really badly," says Rudy Finne, a third-generation longshoreman who spent 15 years as a "casual" before he could work his way up to the "B" list and finally into the "A" ranks.
This year at the Port of Seattle, things are up. Way up. Matt Ventoza is president of ILWU Local 19.
"Through August ... the minimum is about 14,856. Those are total jobs that have come through our hall," said Ventoza.
This year, the Port of Seattle has seen month-to-month growth figures that are well into double digits. January 2010 is up almost 22 percent over January of 2009. June was up almost 62 percent. August was up almost 39 percent. The port also saw record cruise ship traffic.
The Port says there are three reasons for the growth. In one case, Maersk lines, a big European based shipping line, moved its terminal up from Tacoma. Several long-term customers have increased their throughput through Seattle at the expense of ports in California.
And then, there's the economy. A port spokesman says about 40 percent of the growth is because of what retailers are importing to get ready for what's expected to be a turnaround in the Christmas season.
Exports are also up. The grain terminal is busy sending out wheat to Asian markets.
And then there's those 223 cruise ship calls.
For containers alone, 2005 saw a record 2 million TEU's (Twenty foot Equivalent Unit. A 40-foot long container would equal two TEU's.)
"But we think we're going to hit more than 2 million this year," said Linda Styrk, the managing director for the seaport, "which we haven't done for a number of years, which was our peak."
A Port of Tacoma spokeswoman says they have not growth rates nearly as strong as Seattle, but Tacoma's numbers are still also heading higher.
But cargo can be here today and gone tomorrow. So called "discretionary cargo" can be quickly moved by shipping companies to other ports in a business where pencils become very sharp.
One big concern is growth of a new port in Prince Rupert, British Columbia, which puts containers onto trains that travel halfway across Canada before dropping down across the border into the American Midwest. The Panama Canal is being widened, a massive project that Longshore workers fear could send more cargo to the east or gulf coasts.
But as strong as the numbers look at the Port of Seattle, there is still caution. Call it double dip recession nervousness. Everyone is hoping that Christmas shoppers buy what the stores brought in across the shipping terminals at the port.
