Why Should Delaware Care?
The Port of Wilmington, a state-owned facility, is one of the last anchors of high-paying, blue-collar jobs in northern Delaware. It also has been the center of controversy for years, particularly with respect to ambitious but controversial plans to expand through construction of a new container terminal in Edgemoor.
A brief remark from Gov. Matt Meyer two weeks ago about what he said was “the need for (an) automated container port” has reignited a backlash from the longshoremen’s union that last fall went on strike over that issue, and others.
The backlash adds to what have been months of tensions between the governor on one side and lawmakers and certain union officials on the other over how to carry out long-delayed plans to expand the Port of Wilmington through construction of a new container facility in Edgemoor.
During a meeting Monday of a state board that oversees the Port of Wilmington, labor leader William Ashe Jr. referenced Meyer’s remarks before stating that Delaware needs a new container port, but not a fully automated one “because that eliminates jobs.”
“We can’t afford to have people going out saying to the public that you’re going to build a fully automated terminal,” Ashe said to the board of the Diamond State Port Corporation – a state-chartered entity that oversees the Port of Wilmington and directs its expansion.
In recent years, the use of autonomous or semi-autonomous technology on ports has become increasingly common in Asia and Europe, but less so in the United States – in part because of the opposition by unionized labor.
Ashe’s comments came in response to remarks Meyer made during a sit-down interview with The News Journal earlier this month, when he said that “automation and the need for (an) automated container port was recognized really a couple of decades ago in Delaware.”
During the interview, Meyer also said he brought a new perspective and “new attitude that we need to get this new container port done.” Meyer did not detail the ways in which his perspective differs, but did claim that there are people “who aren’t too happy that I won the election.”
Meyer became Delaware’s governor after a hard-fought and costly political campaign last year that featured much of the state’s Democratic establishment supporting his opponent – then-Lt. Gov. Bethany Hall-Long.
Asked about Ashe’s comments on Tuesday, a spokesman for Meyer said the governor had never said that Edgemoor should be a fully automated port – contrasting full automation with modern automated innovations that still require workers.
The spokesman, Nick Merlino, also said that it was Ashe and another port labor leader who first told Meyer over a decade ago about a “modernized container port that would create thousands of union jobs in the state of Delaware.”
Ashe declined to comment on Merlino’s statement.
Officials from Enstructure, the private operating company at the publicly owned Port of Wilmington, did not respond to a request to comment for this story.
A years-long fight
Debates over how or whether to automate, or use unmanned robots, for the Port of Wilmington’s operations go back to at least 2018 when Delaware struck a deal with Emirati-based Gulftainer to privatize the facility.
At the time, Gulftainer CEO Peter Richards insisted that the Port of Wilmington would need to automate in order to outperform its competitors along the Delaware River, according to a report then from the Delaware Business Times.
In response at that time, Ashe publicly rejected automation at the facility, insisting instead that “everything will be monitored” by a worker.
In spring of 2023, Delaware officials ousted Gulftainer from the Port of Wilmington following years of mismanagement and millions of dollars of missed leased payments to the state. Enstructure took over the operations later that summer.
It is unclear today how the state’s new agreement with Enstructure guides the use of automated technology at the port. Its 50-year lease contract obtained by Spotlight Delaware only requires the company to hire all existing ILA employees at the time they took over the Port of Wilmington from Gulftainer.
A two-page section regarding the development of the future Port of Edgemoor is almost entirely redacted.
Enstructure’s registered lobbyist in Delaware, Patrick Allen, is also a longtime lobbyist for trade unions in the state. In February, Ashe told Spotlight Delaware that Allen is representing his union local, which is part of the International Longshoremen’s Association.
In March, the International Longshoremen’s Association finalized details of a new contract with shipping companies that largely prevents East Coast ports from using unmanned, autonomous off-loading equipment.
The new contract, which remains in effect until 2030, followed months of contentious negotiations in 2024 that included a three-day strike.
Edgemoor’s challenges
At the Monday meeting of the Diamond State Port Corporation board, Enstructure officials revealed a construction timeline for the Edgemoor container terminal, saying they could complete the project by December 2028.
That timeline is contingent on the state reacquiring a dredging permit that a federal judge invalidated last fall, following a legal challenge filed by competing port terminals in Pennsylvania and New Jersey owned by Holt Logistics.
In the federal case, U.S. District Judge Mark Kearney ruled in October that Corps of Engineers officials had acted “arbitrarily and capriciously” when issuing the approvals to the Port Corporation.
Specifically, he said, they dismissed maritime safety concerns posed by ships turning from the Delaware River’s shipping lane to the Edgemoor port.
Last month, the container port project hit an additional snag after a Delaware judge ruled that a state board’s decision to uphold another dredging permit failed “to reflect a rational consideration of the evidence.”
The sharply worded opinion placed additional doubt and uncertainty around the ambitious $635 million port construction project.
Plans for the Edgemoor port call for a facility that could handle upwards of 1.2 million containers, or roughly three times the capacity of the existing Port of Wilmington. If successful, it would become one of the 15 largest ports in North America.