Evergreen Shipping Agency cuts jobs in US restructuring

News was prepared under the information support of Online Daily Newspaper on Hellenic and international Shipping "Hellenic Shipping News".

31 Dec 2008

Evergreen Shipping Agency (America), agents for Evergreen Marine Corp., announced today that it will consolidate some North America offices and reduce staff in the face of the downturn in the global ocean shipping business. "The worldwide economic turmoil has created a situation we have not seen in our lifetimes," the company said in a statement to its North America employees. The measures being taken will reduce costs and put the agency on a more sustainable structure moving forward, it said.
Affected offices include Baltimore, Charleston, Chicago, Norfolk and Toronto. The agency will close its Salt Lake City office and move work done there to Dallas.
Evergreen Line had previously announced capacity reductions on several trade lanes.
The company said a number of new positions will open and agency employees may apply. Severance including salary and benefits will be given to employees whose positions will be eliminated. The changes will be implemented on or before March 15.
The company did not say how many jobs are being eliminated.
"It is disappointing and disheartening that we are faced with a decision that has also impacted virtually every other carrier in ocean shipping today," an agency spokesperson said. "We are positioning EGA to survive the catastrophic economic crisis and to succeed when we recover from these difficult times."
In November, Neptune Orient Lines, the Singapore parent of APL, announced it was laying off 1,000 employees, or around 9 percent of its workforce, mostly in North America, and moving its Americas regional headquarters from Oakland, Calif., to a location elsewhere in the U.S.

Source: Journal of Commerce