Page 71 - Rukert - 100th Anniversary

As the new crane was being built, company leaders were advised to split off its operations from Rukert Terminals to limit liability. In the fall of 1981, a new corporation called Beacon Stevedoring was born. Beacon Stevedoring contracted on an as-needed basis for the use of Rukert Terminals’ piers and bulk-unloading cranes. In the spring of 1982, Norm advised ILA Local 333 that Rukert Terminals planned to use its own personnel to operate the new PECO bulk unloader. This was based on the precedent that ILA personnel had not operated any of the similar grab-bucket bulk cranes in the port, including at the Canton Company’s crane pier. Later, a dispute would occur about whether Local 333 was entitled to the crane opera- tion work. Eventually, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) determined that the ILA could not require Rukert Terminals to assign the crane work to members of Local 333. In June of 1985, the U.S. Court of Appeals, 4th Circuit upheld the NLRB’s decision that Rukert Terminals could use non-union employees to operate the PECO crane.
On May 4, 1982, the brand-new PECO bulk crane at Pier 5 unloaded its first cargo of urea off
the M/V Lago Peten Itza. In the summer of 1982,
the PECO started discharging vessels of a new and promising commodity: industrial and deicing salt for Cargill Salt Company. Capable of handling up to 700 tons of cargo per hour, the wonderfully efficient new crane increased the company’s annual tonnage by 30 percent in its first year of service. Within three years, the PECO paid for itself. Though some were critical of the new crane, which was small in comparison to others in the port, Norm’s intuition that the high- speed bulk unloader would be a success was right
on the money. Over the next 39 years, members of a highly skilled Crane Crew would discharge over 35 million tons of cargo through the harbor workhorse.
In early 1983, Lazaretto Terminal was returned to Rukert Terminals with a portion of
the 1.7-mile, eight-lane Fort McHenry Tunnel running underneath it. All but two buildings had been demolished and a new “A” berth had been constructed. The area directly over the tunnel was filled with sand that had been dredged out of the harbor for the project. After a decade in the making, what could have been a catastrophic one-two punch to Rukert Terminals instead ushered in a new era
of expansion and success. As Cap and Norman Sr. had envisioned, Rukert Terminals now had one of the finest locations anywhere for a marine terminal. Once the tunnel opened, it brought Interstate 95 virtually to the company’s front door. Trucks could leave the terminal and immediately be on the interstate without having to go through the city.
In retrospect, the closing of the Canton Company’s crane pier was a second blessing in disguise that forced Rukert Terminals to build its own crane to stay in the bulk business. Around the office, this tendency to turn
FACING PAGE: The M/V Lago Peten Itza was the first vessel discharged with the new PECO crane.
PART II BRINGING THE WORLD TO BALTIMORE
THE PORT: PRIDE OF BALTIMORE
NORMAN RUKERT SR.’S FOURTH
BOOK, THE PORT, PUBLISHED IN 1982,
IS AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF
MARYLAND’S MOST PRODUCTIVE
NATURAL RESOURCE. Combining
historical research with knowledge from
his waterfront career, Norman Sr. documents the development of the
great Port of Baltimore, beginning in 1750. As he does in his other harborside histories, Norman Sr. imparts a number of tales and oddities about the port.
63