The Dive: Shock at the Dock

Shoppers crowded local stores and cleared out supplies last week, inducing a pandemic-era déjà vu. 

Dockworkers at over a dozen ports along the East and Gulf coasts went on a three-day labor strike for better pay and working conditions. But the port strike, despite its novelty, was short-lived. 

Crowds of local International Longshoremen’s Association members stood along Shipyard Boulevard, holding signs lamenting corporate greed and a machine takeover. Their tactic worked: The United States Maritime Alliance, representing shippers, caved to granting union workers a more than 60 percent raise over the next six years.

It was a historic demonstration of the power of collective bargaining, but the deal isn’t sealed. The parties only extended the previous employment contract and now face a new deadline of January 15. Debates over automation will take center stage for the next round of negotiations. 

North Carolina State Ports Authority director Brian Clark said the brief work stoppage should have minor statewide impacts. Carriers had prepared in the days leading up to the contract deadline, sending ships earlier than planned. A port spokesperson said hurricane relief supplies for the western part of the state weren’t affected. 

“While the timing was bad,” Clark said, “some of the impacts to the region… for the most part will be minimal because of all the front-loading that took place.”

One vessel, originally planned to stop at another East Coast port, ended up offloading the remainder of its cargo in Wilmington so it wouldn’t get stuck during the strike, Clark said. Vessels scheduled to dock last week are arriving now, he said. 

The overall impact is still being evaluated. “It’s a delayed impact,” he said. “It’s not a loss impact.”

Union members are contracted by local terminal operating companies, which work directly with carriers to load or unload cargo from ships. “It is a dangerous industry,” Clark said. The local International Longshoremen’s Association division reports having 400 members, but Clark said employment is casual. “They’re not employed every day,” he said. “There are some days that are busier than others.”

The port authority has roughly 250 employees among its two ports in Wilmington and Morehead City and its inland rail yard in Charlotte, with the majority stationed in Wilmington. In terms of container volume, Wilmington’s port ranks 21st out of the nation’s 110 ports; Morehead City ranks 88th, as of the latest federal data. (Wilmington didn’t even make a blip on Axios’s map of East Coast port volume.)

As for preparing for a potential second strike, Clark said the port is keeping abreast of negotiations but doesn’t have much influence. “We don’t have a seat at the table,” he said. “So we’re not actively engaged in the negotiations.”

Port Vice President of External Affairs Laura Blair emphasized that this was the first strike in nearly 50 years. “This is not a way of life for us,” she said. “Infrequent is not strong enough to describe how often this happens.”

–Johanna F. Still

Catch up on an audio conversation on last week’s edition of The Dive here, or contact us with story ideas and feedback at johanna@theassemblync.com.

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Confidence and Confidentiality

The city of Wilmington recently spent $75,000 on a third-party investigation of the police department, as WHQR reported last week. The contractor, U.S. ISS Agency LLC, specializes in issues at police departments, including internal investigations, litigation support, and vetting new police chiefs.

Starting in May, ISS investigated allegations of bullying, harassment, and intimidation, along with potential city policy violations by department leadership. The firm was also tasked with providing coaching and mentorship for leadership and strategies to improve management. 

It’s not clear exactly what’s being alleged–whether Police Chief Donny Williams is being accused of harassment and bullying, failure to curtail it, or some messier, more systemic scenario. What is clear is that the problem is serious, given that the city manager’s office decided it couldn’t be handled by the police department’s internal affairs or the city’s HR department. 

Responding to a post of the story on X, Councilman Luke Waddell said he was, “largely in the dark as to the details of this investigation,” but that his “conversations with rank-and-file officers suggest there are serious leadership concerns at WPD.” 

Councilman Kevin Spears responded that it “wasn’t that [Williams] messed up, it’s the undermining of his officers that caused $75,000 to be shelled out.”

Spears and Waddell have clashed on this subject before. Waddell raised concerns in July about pay and promotion transparency, citing conversations with officers. Spears said those officers gravitated to Waddell because “they see you publicly criticize the Wilmington Police Department and criticize the chief openly.”

Last week, Mayor Bill Saffo said the city was “a long way” from anything like replacing Williams. But when asked if he still had full confidence in the department, he gave a qualified answer, saying he had faith in the “rank and file,” but adding there are “some things that I believe the chief is going to have to address.”

People are left to speculate what those “things” are. Releasing the final report from ISS, even with redactions, could provide some answers. 

Under state personnel law, it’s confidential. Not even city council has seen it.

But there is a statutory exception: if the city manager and council agree that releasing it is “essential to maintaining public confidence” or protecting the quality of city services.

It’s the caveat that allowed Williams to release personnel information on three officers fired in 2020 over “hate filled speech,” on his first official day as the city’s first Black police chief. The move provided disturbing details, but was widely lauded for giving the public a reassuring level of transparency in a crisis.

–Benjamin Schachtman

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Around the Region

Code Red: Surf City’s town council unanimously rejected a proposal for a 99-unit townhome development, Port City Daily reported. Council took issue with fire concerns because it only planned to include a single access point. 

New Heights: Residents got a preview of three proposed replacement options for the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge at a transportation meeting this week, and some were wary of the tallest options, WECT reported. 

Slow Wheels of Justice: Two Wilmington residents were recently charged with crimes related to storming the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, WECT reports. (This comes in addition to charges against a different Wilmington woman we wrote about last month.)

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Around the State

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