Because of a downturn in shipping at the Port of Eastport, half of the longshoremen who work at the port are taking an early retirement package as a part of a workforce reduction undertaken by Federal Marine Terminals (FMT), the port's terminal operator. With 32 members of the local union, the Northeastern Longshoremen's Association (NELA), 16 are taking up the offer, which is being made available to longshoremen even if they aren't of retirement age. They are being offered a severance package that should be finalized by the end of October.
     Tom Critchley, general manager of FMT, says the downsizing of the longshoremen's workforce from two gangs to one gang is because of the economic downturn. "The market's not good, and they're not shipping enough." The expected tonnage of wood pulp being shipped from the Woodland Pulp mill for this year has dropped from 225,000 metric tons that was estimated at the beginning of this year to about 125,000 tons.
     "It's been a steady decline since 2018," Critchley says. At one time the port shipped 400,000 tons of wood pulp in a year, with another 50,000 tons of cows to Turkey, and there were three gangs working at one point.
     "We're trying to cut back so we can still survive at a lesser tonnage," says Critchley. As for when the market may turn around, he says, "No one knows, with the pandemic."
     Chris Gardner, executive director of the Eastport Port Authority, comments, "We can understand FMT's need to reduce its workforce to meet the current demand. We're glad FMT took a straight-forward approach and worked with the union to accomplish that goal." He terms the action "an unfortunate necessity" taken in response to the market conditions.
     Aaron Urquhart, president of the local longshoremen's union, says it was up to individual union members whether they wanted to accept the early-retirement offer. The severance package offered for each was based on the number of years of service. "It's unfortunate it came to this," he says, "but a lot of us could see things were not very good. The people who decided to retire voluntarily took an opportunity to capitalize on it." He believes that FMT was generous in its offer. "Per the collective bargaining agreement, they could have just done a reduction, but they decided to offer more than that."
     If not enough longshoremen had volunteered for early retirement, FMT would have offered another option of being laid off with the opportunity of being the first to be called back with any rehiring.
     Critchley notes that many of the longshoremen are older. A number also work at other jobs, such as fishing or carpentry. One of the incentives for working as a longshoreman has been the health benefits. "It had gotten so expensive with the monthly payment, it was more than we could bear," says Critchley. "It was costing us $1 million a year for the longshoremen." Full family health plans are provided, with minimal deductibles and co-pays. "They talk about Cadillac plans in insurance, well this is the Maserati plan."