By DON WINNER for Panama-Guide.com - Well, it's about time - I was getting tired of waiting. The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) published their Monthly Canal Operations Summary – APRIL 2008 today. The report is dated 7 May 2008 and it came out on their website today. I've been wanting to see this report in order to confirm the continuing existence of the ongoing "malicious compliance" strike by the Panama Canal Pilots. And in fact, yup, it's there. You just have to be able to understand the numbers and statistics being presented, and to be able to analyze and compare Panama Canal traffic and transit statistics over time. In short, the ACP data from April 2008 demonstrates that in fact the Panama Canal Pilots are continuing their "malicious compliance" or "work to rules" strike. (more)

By DON WINNER for Panama-Guide.com - The ongoing "Malicious compliance" non-declared work slowdown "non-strike" being carried out by the Panama Canal Pilots has to be the top story for April 2008. The most interesting part of this story is that it's a kind of "non-event" - the pilot's can not legally go on strike so they can't make public declarations or statements, and at the same time the Panama Canal Administration is denying that the strike exists. So, for a journalist it kinds of falls into a kind of never-never land from a reporting point of view. But what matters is this - the strike is real, and they are having an effect on the international shipping community, potentially costing shippers hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue and additional costs. Therefore, it's the Panama-Guide story of the month for April 2008.

Copyright 2008 by Don Winner for Panama-Guide.com. Go ahead and use whatever you like as long as you credit the source. Salud.

By DON WINNER for Panama-Guide.com - I'm not talking to a group of Panama Canal Pilots through several different means and methods who are keeping me abreast of their on-going "malicious compliance" strike. Recently one of the pilots posted this as a comment to an earlier article. I'm pushing it forward here because it's a clear and relatively succinct wrap-up of how they got where they are today:

• "I am a panama canal pilot. I DO NOT have the luxury or option of deciding the daily schedule of what ships will pass thru the Panama Canal. That is a "managment function". We are the footsoldiers....so to speak...that do the 'HEAVY LIFTING' for management. We work under a very stringent and time-tested set of work rules and navigation and lockage rules/procedures..some of which go back DECADES." (more)

By DON WINNER for Panama-Guide.com - I would like to formally and officially extend my apologies to Teresa Arosemena of the Panama Canal Administration (ACP). She's understandably "miffed" over my coverage of the ongoing "malicious compliance" strike being carried out by the Panama Canal Pilots. Let me be perfectly clear on something - Teresa Arosemena works in the Corporate Communications division of the ACP. She is often quoted as being a "spokesperson" for the Panama Canal. Newspapers, magazines, and reporters contact the ACP all the time and very often they talk to Teresa. As such, she ends up getting quoted in the articles these journalists write. (more)

By DON WINNER for Panama-Guide.com - I've been reporting on the "malicious compliance" undeclared work slowdown strike being conducted by the pilots of the Panama Canal basically since it started. I have several excellent sources among the work force of the Panama Canal pilots - they read Panama Guide all the time. And when they started down this road they notified me of the their plans and intentions. The strike started on 15 February 2008 and so far no major international news outlet has picked up on the story. Last week Lloyd's List sent a reporter down who took a nibble and made reference to my reporting, but then continued with the ACP "party line" that there is no strike, at all. Then yesterday Teresa Arosemena, the Director of Communications from the ACP, wrote back to Lloyd's List saying that their reporter was irresponsible in having mentioned the possibility of a strike. That's a recap. Now, check this out... (more)

By DON WINNER for Panama-Guide.com - Here's what I do to determine the backlog of ships waiting to go through the Panama Canal - I go to aislive.com and count the number of ships waiting in the Pacific anchorage as a gauge. The last time I counted there were 74 ships and now there are 58, that's sixteen fewer ships in the anchorage than there were nine days ago. The ACP is doing everything they can to push steel through, but in fact the Panama Canal Pilot's "malicious compliance" strike is making it hard(er) for them to clear out the backlog. So yes, there are fewer ships waiting to go through now than there was nine days ago. (more)

By DON WINNER for Panama-Guide.com - The "malicious compliance" strike now being carried out by the Pilot's of the Panama Canal is not a new tactic. They used to call it "working to rules:" The following was taken from The Bulletin Panama and was published on 2 July 2007: "The Panama Canal pilots have always had the dubious honor of being “prima donnas” in that organization and made their power known to a long line of Canal administrators. Under the former US administration by US public service law they did not have the right to strike. However, they knew how to bring pressure to bear by “working to rules”, which they did implement."

Copyright 2008 by Don Winner for Panama-Guide.com. Go ahead and use whatever you like as long as you credit the source. Salud.

By DON WINNER for Panama-Guide.com - Here's another one, this time it was a slowdown by the Panama Canal Pilots in 1980 that was covered by ABC News - "ABC Evening News for Tuesday, Oct 21, 1980 Headline: Panama Canal / Pilots Strike Abstract: (Studio) Report introduced REPORTER: Frank Reynolds (Panama Canal) Backup at Panama Canal due to increase in international shipping and work slowdown of pilots examined; films shown. [Canal commission spokesperson Dennis McAULIFFE - comments.] Issues still to be negotiated outlined. REPORTER: James Walker"

Come On, Guys - Get With The Program: Sooner or later the mainstream media is going to pick up on this story. La Prensa took a nibble but didn't bite hard. Sooner, or later... It's the read deal.

Copyright 2008 by Don Winner for Panama-Guide.com. Go ahead and use whatever you like as long as you credit the source. Salud.

By DON WINNER for Panama-Guide.com - Now I'm running into some really interesting stuff. I bet you didn't know about the "Anthrax Strike" of the Panama Canal. This was a "sick-out" labor action taken by Panama Canal workers in March 1976 and was called the "anthrax strike" because union leaders were calling the Panama Canal Commission "gutless sheep." I found this amazing article which provides in incredible detail the origins of the strike: "By Wednesday March 17 the story was plastered across the front pages of American newspapers. “’Sickout’ Almost Shuts Panama Canal” blared the banner headline of the Miami Herald that morning. A backlog of ships carrying cargo in international commerce was starting to develop on both ends of the canal. The Governor’s office claimed that 700 of the 3,500 US citizen employees had called in sick by midday Tuesday. The unions claimed it was “closer to 1,500 or 2,000.”[95] The Panama Canal had never been closed since the 1915 landslide and the Governor was bound to see that it didn’t happen on his watch either." (Source: "Anthrax Strike: The 1976 Outbreak of Labor Militancy in the Panama Canal Zone" by Michael Murphy, IBEW Local Union 520, Senior Seminar, October 2005)

Copyright 2008 by Don Winner for Panama-Guide.com. Go ahead and use whatever you like as long as you credit the source. Salud.

By DON WINNER for Panama-Guide.com - In researching this story about the ongoing "malicious compliance" strike being carried out by the pilot's of the Panama Canal I ran into this reference on the Internet, taken from The Maritime Advocate.com and published in October 1999 - "Panama Canal employees were forbidden to strike pursuant to US law. The closest situation to a strike occurred when the Panama Canal pilots held "work slowdowns" when they were unhappy in their negotiation of wages and benefits. These situations were normally resolved very quickly, and the canal basically operated in an orderly and efficient manner." These are the same group of crusty old farts that have been pushing steel through the Panama Canal practically since it was dug. The new administration, the ACP, had better find a way to end this quickly because the canal is not currently "operating in an orderly and efficient manner" as it was in the past. The pilots basically have the ACP with one ball in each hand, and they are slowly squeezing. And apparently it's worked in the past.

Copyright 2008 by Don Winner for Panama-Guide.com. Go ahead and use whatever you like as long as you credit the source. Salud.

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)

By DON WINNER for Panama-Guide.com - How many ships can pass through the Panama Canal every day? What exactly is the daily capacity of the Panama Canal? How is that capacity measured? The answer is - "it depends." The advertised capacity of the canal is 38 ships per day. Sometimes they can get as many as 41 or 42 through on a "good day." And it really matters what kinds of ships are going through - it's easier to get some through than others. The ACP has what they consider to be their best customers, the owners of the major shipping lines that put hundreds of ships through the canal every year and paying millions of dollars for the service. So here's the question - if the Panama Canal Pilots actually are conducting some kind of an undeclared work slowdown, and that work slowdown is causing the backlog, how would anyone know? Would it even be possible to detect? The answer is "probably not." (more)

By DON WINNER for Panama-Guide.com - I just checked with the Panama Canal Administration regarding the backlog, and they are sticking to their three part response regarding the backlog of vessels - the backlog has been caused by a combination of increased arrivals and maintenance work on the locks. They have now suspended all maintenance work and have assigned additional resources to help clear out the backlog. And, they don't know anything about reports of a work slowdown by Panama Canal pilots. They did confirm that currently there are 98 ships in the backlog, which has remained at about 100 ships or so for now going on seven weeks. So now what happens if the ACP can not clear out the backlog and the current situation continues for six or ten months - no more maintenance work on the canal locks? Please add "head in the sand culture" to the list of deficiencies for Panamanian managers in general. To be fair I was just talking to people in the ACP communications office, and they are only authorized to tell the press exactly what has been coordinated with their bosses. So they too have been turned into perfect robots. Right now I'm waiting for a call back to request an interview with someone in the ACP management authorized to discuss the (non declared) situation with the canal pilots. Maybe the phone will never ring, but who knows.

Copyright 2008 by Don Winner for Panama-Guide.com. Go ahead and use whatever you like as long as you credit the source. Salud.

• Note: La Prensa picked up on this story because of reporting in the Panama-Guide.com
  
  
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• Photo Credit: LA PRENSA/ David Mesa
  
  
• Discussion: Discuss this situation in our Forums

By DON WINNER for Panama-Guide.com - The Panama Canal continues to be backed up worse than Grandma on a field trip without her Metamucil. And of course it only makes headline news when it effects a ship load of paying cruise line passengers - see the story below about the severely pissed-off passengers on a cruise ship who went through the Panama Canal - at night. The owners of cargo vessels have been waiting a week or more to get their vessels through. The Panama Canal has been severely backed up for weeks with more than 100 vessels waiting in line for more than a week for a chance to go through. What's causing these delays? The Panama Canal has a serious case of "malicious compliance." (more) (Discuss this issue in our Forums)