Brakes Put on Auto Shipment : Toyota Decides Against Unloading Ship in San Diego

Stunned port officials and longshoremen reacted with disbelief Thursday after Toyota officials announced that the company is pulling out of a deal to ship about 4,300 new vehicles to San Diego over the weekend.

San Diego Unified Port District spokesman Dan Wilkins said port officials are disappointed by Toyota’s action, which deprives the cargo-starved port of a windfall source of jobs and revenue.

“We haven’t been given an official reason for their decision. But we are disappointed at the loss of longshoremen’s jobs and opportunities for the stevedoring companies. We were informed (Wednesday) night that Toyota had made an operational decision, and the ship would not be coming. We don’t believe that was because of anything we did,� Wilkins said.

No Explanations

J. R. (Chayo) Colmenero, secretary-treasurer for the Longshoremen’s & Warehousemen’s International Union, Local 29, said he was notified of Toyota’s decision early Thursday morning. Colmenero and other union officials had been scheduled to meet with port authorities later in the day to discuss the unloading of the ship, which was expected to dock on Sunday.

“We were told that the meeting and work were canceled. But nobody gave us an explanation why. We’re all in the dark and wondering what the hell’s going on. There were a lot of people counting on the work, and a lot of them are going to be angry,� Colmenero said.

Deborah Sanchez, spokeswoman for Toyota’s U. S. sales and distribution headquarters in Torrance, said that Toyota decided to order the ship to Long Beach, which was its initial destination, because there suddenly was space available to unload.

On Wednesday, Sanchez had said that Toyota was diverting the ship to San Diego because Toyota’s unloading facility at the Port of Long Beach was crowded with thousands of cars awaiting transport to Southern California dealers. The plan was for San Diego longshoremen to drive the cars off the ship, after which they would be transported by truck to Long Beach.

However, those plans were abruptly changed Wednesday night.

‘There’s Now Room’

“We decided to go ahead and order the ship to Long Beach because some of our inventory had moved,� said Sanchez. “The dealers in the Los Angeles basin have been ordering and moving vehicles at a fast pace. So, there’s now room to discharge the vehicles in Long Beach.�

Unexpected Opportunity

Toyota signed an agreement Tuesday with San Diego port officials for the ship’s arrival at the 24th Street Pier in National City. Along with other fees, Toyota agreed to pay a fee of $14 per vehicle and a dockage fee of $1,734 per day. Local 29’s membership of 78 workers, who earn a base wage of $19.80 an hour, welcomed the unexpected job opportunities.

“We were gearing up for Sunday,� Colmenero said.

Port officials, who have been quietly working to attract auto ships to San Diego, reacted favorably to Toyota’s request to bring the ship to San Diego. Bill Stonehouse, the port’s director of trade development, said the ship would have been the first modern vessel, from which cars are driven off, to dock in San Diego.

In anticipation of the ship’s arrival, port officials put a fence around the pier to secure the vehicles after they were unloaded. Toyota had also agreed to hire security guards that would patrol the pier 24 hours a day, until all the vehicles had left for Long Beach.

In recent years the Port of San Diego has suffered a sharp decline in dockworker jobs and cargo as port officials promote restaurants, hotels and tourist attractions on the waterfront.

In 1988, 1.3 million metric tons of cargo passed through the port. During the same period, the Port of Long Beach recorded 63.4 million metric tons of cargo, while the Port of Los Angeles reported 60.8 million metric tons.