Some “critical equipment” for Tri Marine International's cannery has finally arrived in the territory and is now being unloaded after shipping delays occurred due to the dockworkers’ labor slow down at U.S. West Coast seaports — including those in Washington state, whose Legislature is urging President Barack Obama and the U.S. Congress to intervene.

On the local front, the governor’s executive assistant Iulogologo Joseph Pereira said yesterday that Gov. Lolo Matalasi Moliga has reached out to Interior Department’s Assistant Secretary for Insular Areas, as well as Congresswoman Aumua Amata “to intervene on our behalf with the Longshoreman Strike strangling shipping services to American Samoa, causing shortages of food and dry goods.”

On Tuesday this week the container vessel Cape Avatele arrived at the Port of Pago Pago with containers of food items, supplies and other goods for stores to restocks shelves already empty. It also brought supplies for companies, including Tri Marine whose cannery operations at  Samoa Tuna Processors Inc., has been delayed due to needing required equipment.

Responding to Samoa News questions, Tri Marine chief operating officer Joe Hamby said, the “stevedoring situation [on the West Coast] is hurting a lot of people and companies. Samoa Tuna Processors is no exception.”

He confirmed yesterday that the vessel Cape Avatele arrived Monday “carrying some critical equipment that had been delayed for some time on the West Coast. We will be unloading these containers as quickly as possible and installing some key pieces of equipment to allow us to begin limited production the second half of this month.”

He says the local facility currently has about 300 employees on the payroll and they have hired an additional 62 employees. “Some of those new employees are undergoing training and others are on standby pending the start of production,” Hamby said through Tri Marine’s public relation’s office.

“The ramped up schedule will be very deliberate and will depend on the process of installing and commissioning the production equipment, training employees, and market demand,” he said.

Asked about the impact — if any — Tri Marine is faced with when it comes to its exports out of Pago Pago due to the shipping delays, Hamby replied, “with regard to finished goods shipped to our customers, we are hopeful the regular twice monthly schedule of vessels from American Samoa to the US West Coast will resume very soon and avoid any delays. However, if the current situation persists or worsens, there will be delays in those shipments.”

StarKist’s corporate spokesperson in Pittsburgh didn’t immediately respond to requests for comments or answers to questions regarding the shipping delay's impact to its local operations.

Chamber of Commerce chairman David Robinson said over the weekend that “exports from the canneries will be affected if consignments cannot be off loaded at West Coast ports and this could lead to a decline in production and a resultant lay off of some of the [local] work force, causing more hardship in the community.”

Tri Marine is home-based in Washington state, whose Legislature has called on President Obama, the Executive Branch agencies and Congress to take all steps necessary to assist the Pacific Maritime Association and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) to reach a fair and equitable resolution of their negotiations and adopt a contract that will promote the competitiveness of the state’s busy seaports, according to a copy of the resolution received by Samoa News.