A Key Bi-Coastal Shipping Event

It’s a little more than a month away, but not too early for those of us in the ocean cargo community to make plans for a “must attend” event.

James McKenna, president of the Pacific Maritime Association, and Robert McEllrath, president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, will be honored October 1 by the Containerization and Intermodal Institute (CII) at the first ever Connie Award

event to be held on the West Coast.

Each recipient will be recognized for significant influence in containerization in

world trade and transportation at an industry-wide dinner at the Renaissance

Hotel in Long Beach, CA. The Port of Long Beach is a principal sponsor of the

event.

CII, founded in 1960, has been presenting the Connie Award since 1972 and it

has become the most coveted honor in the field of containerization and its

ancillary industry. Among some 35 recipients are Malcom McLean, Thomas B.

Crowley Sr., Bruce Seaton and Douglas Tilden.

McKenna’s organization, the PMA, negotiates and administers maritime labor

agreements with McEllrath’s group, the International Longshore and Warehouse

Union (ILWU). PMA member companies are ocean cargo carriers, terminal

operators and stevedores that operate at West Coast ports, where overall cargo

movement supports eight million U.S. jobs. The union represents waterfront

workers along the Pacific Coast and Hawaii.

The recipients were chosen following an industry poll and are being recognized

for efforts in securing a six-year contract covering more than 25,000 dockworkers

at 29 West Coast ports. Both said it meets the needs of both workers and the

industry. It allows West Coast ports to be competitive and provides the good jobs

that workers and communities need.

In announcing the event and awardees, Allen Clifford, CII president and

executive vice president of Mediterranean Shipping Company, said: “Industry

representatives across the U.S. have been drawn to the prestigious Connie

Awards in the New York area. To meet the popular demand of this event, it is

time that we bring this gala and prestigious award here so our West Coast

business community can honor our recipients as well.” The annual Connie

Award luncheon will take place December 7 in Newark, N.J.

As president of the San Francisco-based PMA, Jim McKenna directs the

association’s principal business activity of negotiating and administering maritime

labor agreements with the ILWU on the West Coast. He also oversees all

operations, including the administration of payroll, benefits, and pension, and the

training of the ILWU workforce and PMA staff. Prior to joining PMA in July 2003,

McKenna was chief operating officer at Horizon Lines (formerly CSX). He has

nearly 30 years of domestic and international maritime industry experience that

includes vessel operations, procurement, terminal operations, and labor relations

activities at Sea-Land Service and Horizon Lines.

A career-long dockworker, McEllrath was appointed in 1993 to finish the term of

the Northwest Coast Committeeman through 1994. McEllrath won election to that

position in 1997 before being elected international vice president for the Mainland

in 2000. McEllrath has extensive contract negotiating experience, having served

as the representative for five small ports in the Columbia River area on the

Longshore Negotiating Committee for the 1993 and 1996 contracts. He served

as co-chair of that negotiating committee for the 1999 contract and also cochaired

that committee during the lengthy and contentious 2002 West Coast

longshore negotiations. He has also chaired the Negotiating Committee for the

ILWU-PMA Shipboard Grain contract in 1999. He served as chair of the union’s

Negotiating Committee for the Northwest Grain Handlers contract in 2000 and

2003. McEllrath is a second-generation longshore worker.

In addition to the awards, CII will present several scholarships to students

studying logistics and scholarships and to maritime academy cadets. The

mission of CII is to promote and support the business of international trade and

the intermodal container transportation community.

CII, a non-profit organization, promotes industry awareness, preserves the

history of intermodalism, and engages scholarly interest in the field by organizing

educational conferences and seminars, serving as an information resource,

providing networking opportunities, offering career guidance, arranging

internships, and facilitating scholarships. CII is dedicated to promoting the

international intermodal industry in education outreach.