Union concerned about future employment at Port of Indiana-Burns Harbor, loss of current stevedore’s investments

Local International Longshoremen’s Association leaders are still seeking answers about why the contract of stevedore Metro Ports is not being renewed at the end of the year. They’ve had Zoom calls with Gov. Eric Holcomb’s office and reached out repeatedly to Indianapolis-based Ports of Indiana, a quasi-governmental agency governing the port system.

“Metro Ports, the largest bulk cargo stevedore in the United States with operations up and down the coasts, invested millions of dollars at the deepwater port in Portage, brought in more environmentally friendly equipment and helped drive the port to record cargo volumes,” Local 1969 Business Agent Joseph Perez and International Longshoremen’s Association leaders said in a statement. “Metro Ports and the Longshoremen’s Union Locals 1969 and 2038 that represent workers throughout the port were shocked when Metro received a letter from the Ports of Indiana stating that they would not be renewing their lease.”

Metro Ports is one of two stevedores at the deepwater port on Lake Michigan. It handles bulk cargoes like ore, grain and potash.

“In the letter, Ports of Indiana mentions that they had provided an agreement that would expand Metro Ports’ bulk operations and that Metro Ports to date has not accepted the proposed expansion agreement,” Perez said in the statement. “What they have failed to mention was that there was already a documented existing agreement in the works and that Metro Ports agreed to contribute $2 million to the Ports of Indiana in matching funds to the Federal FASTLANE Infrastructure grant in exchange for the much-needed infrastructure changes to expand their operations. They have also failed to mention that Metro Ports has already surrendered $500,000 to the Ports of Indiana towards this agreement.”

Ports of Indiana spokesperson Alicia Thomas said the port authority had been in renewal talks with Metro Ports since 2018 before deciding to go in a different direction.

“First and foremost, Ports of Indiana is dedicated to growing Indiana’s economy in Burns Harbor and the state. We support the community with the promotion of living wages and jobs with real benefits that our union labor and workers in the region enjoy,” she said. “Metro Ports has routinely failed to satisfy its contractual obligations with the Ports of Indiana to this day. Ports of Indiana could not in good faith continue to conduct business with an operator that is not fulfilling key components of its operating agreement. Accordingly, we could not have rewarded Metro Ports with a new contract.”

Perez said the port and Metro Ports had been at loggerheads over the remaining $1.5 million to be put toward infrastructure improvements. Metro Ports had asked for more upgrades to take place before it contributed more money to the agreement.

“We, the Longshoremen, believe that this is the Ports of Indiana’s way of strong-arming Metro Ports, since Metro did not cave and just give the Ports of Indiana the additional monies, even though the Ports of Indiana was no longer willing to fulfill their end of the original agreement,” Perez and International Longshoremen’s Association leaders said in a statement.

Union leaders are also concerned that the port has proposed rent increases of as much as 600% for tenants. They said the employers have also faced delays in obtaining permits and micromanaging of their operations.

“We have heard several complaints from other tenants located throughout the port about this new administration and the way they conduct business as well,” Perez said. “These are 30-year-plus tenants that continue to prosper and provide for well over 1,000 families and they deserve to be treated much better than this. The objective is supposed to be to provide proper adequate infrastructure to attract new tenants to our port family, not to drive out your existing workforces.”

The union is calling for more openness and transparency in port operations. Union leaders are questioning why they haven’t been kept apprised of the process of hiring a new stevedore.

They have concerned about how workers, their jobs and employers will ultimately be affected.

“When questioned by the longshoremen who the Ports of Indiana had planned to bring in to replace Metro Ports, the Port’s response was that they will be providing a stevedore just as good if not better than Metro Ports,” Perez said. “In past practice, the Ports of Indiana would put out a request for proposals when an opening or change in company arises… We question our government’s ethics in not enforcing transparency to its public and refusing to bargain in good faith, the same government that enforces these very same rules to the unions and the employers.”