Baltimore’s port closure means lost work

When the container ship Dali struck the base of the Francis Scott Key Bridge early Tuesday morning, it set off a rapid chain of events. 
The bridge crumpled into the Patapsco River, its twisted metal draped over the ship and its thousands of containers. Eight construction workers and their cars tumbled into the water. Two of the workers are dead; four are still missing and presumed dead. And the whole disaster is now blocking one of the country’s busiest ports, the Port of Baltimore.
For many workers at the port, that chain of events means that work has either slowed or stopped completely.

“Quite a few are out of work right now,” said Scott Cowan, President of International Longshoremen’s Association Local 333 in Baltimore. He represents 2,400 dockworkers and ILA members in the Port of Baltimore.
These are the workers who load and unload ships at the port. They operate cranes. They receive and deliver cargo. They do maintenance and repair work on equipment and containers. They perform clerical work like timekeeping and recording the movement of cargo.

“Some of our maintenance guys and mechanics are still going to work to maintain the equipment in the facility,” said Cowan. 
“But the bulk of our work is the unloading and loading. That’s where the labour-intensive jobs are, where we use a lot of people. ... And that’s not happening right now.”
How long it takes to get the shipping channel cleared will determine how deeply port workers are affected — and the size of the impact to Maryland’s economy. Cowan says the closure of the shipping channel is costing US $ 191 million a day in lost economic activity.

The state has set up a dedicated unemployment line for workers affected by the port closure. Through Wednesday, the day after the collapse, fewer than 200 affected workers had made unemployment claims, according to a spokesperson for the Maryland Department of Labor.
And Maryland Senate President Sen. Bill Ferguson said earlier this week that he would sponsor emergency legislation to provide income replacement for workers impacted by the port’s closure. 
(NPR)