Apparently, “there is no breaking news” at the Port of Seattle today… you know… other than fact that it is closed.
Yup, all Port of Seattle container terminals are closed today due to a fatal accident that killed a longshoreman last night at Terminal 5. Docks are scheduled to re-open tonight at 6PM.
I only know this because a local freight forwarder CC’d me an angry email:
Today all of the Seattle terminals are closed due to the death of a longshore worker. Many of our customers have been asking about what the situation is at the port. I looked on the Port of Seattle website and was flabbergasted to see that nothing was written there. The SPECIAL BREAKING NEWS section said “there is no special breaking news today.” Say what?
I phoned the main number and was switched to the public affairs department. When asked if all of the terminals were closed and for how long, the woman who answered said, “I was unaware that the ports were closed today.”
Hmm. Sounds to me like this woman might have a promising career in the FDA Office of Public Affairs. But I digress. The angry email continues:
She transferred me to someone is the SEAPORTS section. This woman wasn’t sure how long the ports would be closed, put me on hold for awhile, then told me to call the individual terminals or the PMA.
How many people work in this department, and what are they supposed to be doing? I told her that I was disappointed and surprised to find that there was nothing posted on the website and that the first person didn’t even know that the ports were closed. She said she would talk to public affairs section and hung up. ALL of the Seattle SEAPORTS are CLOSED ALL DAY – and that is not important enough to put on their website????
My property taxes make me choke. I am sick that this port is unable to function without our tax support, don’t know how to run themselves profitably, and apparently have lackadaisical employees.
I’m told the longshore union normally takes off a shift whenever there is a work fatality, so the folks at the Port of Seattle, this being their supposed area of expertise, should have been fully prepared to deal with public queries.
Apparently not.