LAILOKEN
24-abr-2008, 09:26
Panama Canal Kluster 2008 Continues (Canal Pilots Still On Strike)
By DON WINNER for Panama-Guide.com - Well, today I decided to check back in on the kluster that has become the Panama Canal. Back in the second week of February 2008 (now about eight weeks ago) the Panama Canal pilots started an informal and undeclared "malicious compliance" strike. More of a work slow-down than anything else, really. They want a new labor contract and a raise but the ACP has been blowing them off for more than two years. So, they decided to just turn the heat up a little. Well, the heat has been on a slow boil for about two months now and it seems they've pegged the backlog they want to maintain at "about 100" ships waiting to get through. More show up, more go through. Less show up, less go through. It kind of makes you wonder who is actually running the show over there. (more)
Check This Out: This is a screen shot from the free version of AIS Live. In case you don't want to count, this shows 74 vessels just in the Pacific anchorage - on a normal day there should be just a handful. This snapshot shows the "Panama Canal Kluster 2008" in its full glory.
What About the Atlantic Side: No better. I took this snap this afternoon. You can see they are just as backed up on that side of the Canal.
What About the ACP? The leadership and management of the ACP still have their collective heads still buried in the sand, apparently. I did some analysis on the last 15 months of data taken from the ACP's monthly advisories to shipping - specifically the 15 Monthly Canal Operations Summaries from January 2007 through March of 2008. The ACP has been blaming the backlog in higher than normal levels of arrivals. Unfortunately the data does not support that theory. It's a strike guys. Fess up...
That's The Big Lie: The ACP wants you (and the entire international Maritime Community) to believe this ongoing backlog was cause by a few hours of lane outages that occurred more than eight weeks ago back in February 2008. That, in a word, is quite simply crap. Please go back up and take another good look at the last chart. If the backlog is being caused by an increase in arrivals then why is it taking an average of 13.88 hours to transit the Panama Canal, when on any other "normal" month it takes about 10.xx hours to get through. The answer = "malicious compliance." This, my firends, is a work slowdown by the Panama Canal pilots. The Panama Canal Pilots are quite simply taking their time and that is the real cause of the backlog. No more "Mr. Nice Guy," at least until they get their contract.
ACP Not Taking My Calls: I usually have pretty good relations with the public affairs department in the ACP. They have things going on all the time and I cover them. When I started calling to ask about the strike the answer is (of course) that they don't know anything about it. When I asked about the cause of the backlog they gave be the "party line" of high arrivals and a little maintenance work. Then I asked for an interview with someone in either canal operations or labor management to discuss the issue of an undeclared Panama Canal pilot's strike and their labor negotiations - and no one wants to speak to me all of a sudden. I mean, I want to hear their side of the story and ask them about the (what's a nice word) "incongruence" I'm seeing in the data, as well as to discuss what I'm hearing from my little bird sources out there among the pilot community, but I'm getting blown off. For the record - I now am asking for an interview with Maunel E. Benitez, the Executive Vice President of Operations for the Panama Canal Authority and the guy who signs these Monthly Canal Operations Summaries I'm using for my analysis. The fine folks and the ACP know where to find me if and when they ever decide to schedule that interview. 399-4750 is my office number.
What's The Cost? Anyone who knows shipping - what does it cost to have a refrigerated container ship full of melons or something sitting at anchorage in the waters of the Panama Canal for like a week to ten days? I mean, it can't be cheap. The ACP wants to keep this quiet because if (when) the shipping community gets wind of what is actually going on, they are going to go ape-shit bonkers. Hey, wait a minute. Maybe I should go back and take all of the plain speech out of this article so that the "big boys" will run it when they finally wake up. Nah, that's no fun...
What About This Angle: "This never happened when the US ran the canal..." I bet that will wake some people up. Of course this kind of stuff probably happened back then as well, but maybe not in the same way. Now the Republic is Panama is running the Panama Canal, and the are responsible for managing the Panama Canal, and therefore they are responsible for this eight week long backup which is (no kidding) being caused by a labor action. These numbers and statistics can only be ignored for so long, and eventually the entire world is going to wake up (and visit Panama-Guide.com to find out what's going on.
I Mean It This Time: Nobody else out there has this story. And I mean no one. I don't care if you use it, like I say at the end of everything I write. But please make sure you give credit to the original source reporting. Take it, run with it, but just give us credit for breaking the story. It's a slowly breaking story, but without a doubt we got it first. If you know about it you most certainly got it here. So thanks for playing
Please, check la nota en el sitio indicado...
:Haha:
By DON WINNER for Panama-Guide.com - Well, today I decided to check back in on the kluster that has become the Panama Canal. Back in the second week of February 2008 (now about eight weeks ago) the Panama Canal pilots started an informal and undeclared "malicious compliance" strike. More of a work slow-down than anything else, really. They want a new labor contract and a raise but the ACP has been blowing them off for more than two years. So, they decided to just turn the heat up a little. Well, the heat has been on a slow boil for about two months now and it seems they've pegged the backlog they want to maintain at "about 100" ships waiting to get through. More show up, more go through. Less show up, less go through. It kind of makes you wonder who is actually running the show over there. (more)
Check This Out: This is a screen shot from the free version of AIS Live. In case you don't want to count, this shows 74 vessels just in the Pacific anchorage - on a normal day there should be just a handful. This snapshot shows the "Panama Canal Kluster 2008" in its full glory.
What About the Atlantic Side: No better. I took this snap this afternoon. You can see they are just as backed up on that side of the Canal.
What About the ACP? The leadership and management of the ACP still have their collective heads still buried in the sand, apparently. I did some analysis on the last 15 months of data taken from the ACP's monthly advisories to shipping - specifically the 15 Monthly Canal Operations Summaries from January 2007 through March of 2008. The ACP has been blaming the backlog in higher than normal levels of arrivals. Unfortunately the data does not support that theory. It's a strike guys. Fess up...
That's The Big Lie: The ACP wants you (and the entire international Maritime Community) to believe this ongoing backlog was cause by a few hours of lane outages that occurred more than eight weeks ago back in February 2008. That, in a word, is quite simply crap. Please go back up and take another good look at the last chart. If the backlog is being caused by an increase in arrivals then why is it taking an average of 13.88 hours to transit the Panama Canal, when on any other "normal" month it takes about 10.xx hours to get through. The answer = "malicious compliance." This, my firends, is a work slowdown by the Panama Canal pilots. The Panama Canal Pilots are quite simply taking their time and that is the real cause of the backlog. No more "Mr. Nice Guy," at least until they get their contract.
ACP Not Taking My Calls: I usually have pretty good relations with the public affairs department in the ACP. They have things going on all the time and I cover them. When I started calling to ask about the strike the answer is (of course) that they don't know anything about it. When I asked about the cause of the backlog they gave be the "party line" of high arrivals and a little maintenance work. Then I asked for an interview with someone in either canal operations or labor management to discuss the issue of an undeclared Panama Canal pilot's strike and their labor negotiations - and no one wants to speak to me all of a sudden. I mean, I want to hear their side of the story and ask them about the (what's a nice word) "incongruence" I'm seeing in the data, as well as to discuss what I'm hearing from my little bird sources out there among the pilot community, but I'm getting blown off. For the record - I now am asking for an interview with Maunel E. Benitez, the Executive Vice President of Operations for the Panama Canal Authority and the guy who signs these Monthly Canal Operations Summaries I'm using for my analysis. The fine folks and the ACP know where to find me if and when they ever decide to schedule that interview. 399-4750 is my office number.
What's The Cost? Anyone who knows shipping - what does it cost to have a refrigerated container ship full of melons or something sitting at anchorage in the waters of the Panama Canal for like a week to ten days? I mean, it can't be cheap. The ACP wants to keep this quiet because if (when) the shipping community gets wind of what is actually going on, they are going to go ape-shit bonkers. Hey, wait a minute. Maybe I should go back and take all of the plain speech out of this article so that the "big boys" will run it when they finally wake up. Nah, that's no fun...
What About This Angle: "This never happened when the US ran the canal..." I bet that will wake some people up. Of course this kind of stuff probably happened back then as well, but maybe not in the same way. Now the Republic is Panama is running the Panama Canal, and the are responsible for managing the Panama Canal, and therefore they are responsible for this eight week long backup which is (no kidding) being caused by a labor action. These numbers and statistics can only be ignored for so long, and eventually the entire world is going to wake up (and visit Panama-Guide.com to find out what's going on.
I Mean It This Time: Nobody else out there has this story. And I mean no one. I don't care if you use it, like I say at the end of everything I write. But please make sure you give credit to the original source reporting. Take it, run with it, but just give us credit for breaking the story. It's a slowly breaking story, but without a doubt we got it first. If you know about it you most certainly got it here. So thanks for playing
Please, check la nota en el sitio indicado...
:Haha: