From: David Hickmott [DHickmott@uli-atl.com]

Sent: Thursday, July 19, 2007 9:03 AM

To: David Hickmott (E-mail)

Cc: David Hickmott; David Hickmott

Subject: FW: ILWU Contract Negotiations

Attachments: DOC071707.pdf

Dear Valued Unique Customers:

I have attached to this email, two recent articles from the Journal of Commerce regarding ongoing negotiations in the Port of Los Angeles-Long Beach. These articles contain the most anyone knows about where the negotiations are and are possibly headed. As usual it is only anyone's best guess about the end result.

These negotiations only effect the Port of Los Angeles-Long Beach but there are two important considerations to consider:

A) Los Angeles/Long Beach handles approximately 40% of the cargo entering the USA. This would be a huge, almost impossible amount of cargo to spread to other ports in the case of a strike. It has been well documented, over recent years, that port infrastructure everywhere in the USA has been pushed to their limits just handling what comes in to those facilities now with no shutdowns anywhere. Therefore a strike in LA/LB, even for just a week, would most certainly cause delays everywhere.

B) Even though the negotiations are limited to unions within LA/LB, there is no guarantee on "sympathy strikes" not occurring at other west coast ports.

In the case of a strike, the alternatives are obvious yet not simple. For cargo destined to the west coast area, as well as MLB cargo to any inland point, other west coast ports would have to be used whenever possible. Cargo destined for the east coast could use all water service to east coast ports.

The "not simple" part comes as a result in both A & B mentioned above. Even if there were no sympathy strikes occurring at other west coast ports, there would be no way for the other ports to easily absorb the huge volumes normally handled by LA/LB: delays would be inevitable and substantial. As for the all water services (east coast discharge), due to the very large rate increases put in to effect this year on MLB cargo, there have already been significant volumes of cargo shifted from MLB to all water services; much more than any increase in capacity. There is nowhere near enough vessel space available to absorb the LA/LB volumes or even much of it.

Not mentioned yet are the already overloaded infrastructure in Canada (i.e. ports & rails), making that a poor alternative, and the strain on the rail infrastructure servicing the other ports on the west coast of the USA.

So there are no automatic, surefire ways to avoid experiencing problems if a strike at the Port of LA/LB occurs. However we have handled even worse market situations in the past.  Unique will be fully prepared to explore any and all possible alternatives available in the market.

If you have any questions please let us know and we will continue to keep you updated on this situation.

Thank you for your support of Unique Logistics International (ATL).

David Hickmott

Executive Vice President

Office:  404-767-0500 ext 306

Cell#678-478-6604

E-Mail:  dhickmott@uli-atl.com

Website:  www.uli-atl.com