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Ports are not under federal control, they are under the management of a local Port Authority (like the New York/New Jersey Port Authority, the same people who run the Port Authority Bus Station, runs the PATH trains, bridges and tunnels, JFK, La Guardia and Newark Airports and built the World Trade Center) The only federalized part of ports is security (Coast Guard) and Immigration (Border Patrol/INS) Port Authorities are usually quasi-public agencies with governing boards appointed by local municipalities and the state in question (in the case of New York/New Jersey, there is a 12 member board, 6 appointed by New York State and 6 by New Jersey) In almost every case, the Port Authority hires corporations to run the logistics by contract for much of their operations, they don't own construction companies, for instance, they bid out and hire construction companies (When we say NY/NJ PA built the GW Bridge and the Lincoln Tunnel, they didn't actually "build' them themselves, they hired firms to manage the construction, including subcontractors, within a financial framework (you get X dollars to build it, you must meet these expectations/specifications, using the following labour agreements,etc)
In the case of actual Ports, shipping is an extremely competitive business, Ports are self sustaining financially because they collect fees from shippers (you pay to dock, you pay to unload and reload, for instance) and these fees are huge, so the port that can handle the largest ships, and load/unload cargo the most efficiency will get the most ships through, and collect the largest number of fees. In the Port of New York/New Jersey, the biggest element is the Port Newark/Elizabeth Marine Terminal (which was the first containerized port, and as recently as 1995 the largest in volume in the world, last year, EMT moved over 100 billion worth of goods.) There are five private companies operating in PNEMT, including the late P & O Ports, which came late to the game and redeveloped the Port of Newark Container Terminal, a seperate teminal in Newark. P&O paid for the redevelopment of the terminal, which from being non-functional 10 years ago is now capable of transhipping one million containers a year. this terminal will now be operated by Dubai World Ports, it appears.
There have always been private contractors running port operations, who built all the wharehouses and wharfs? not the city (although they may have financed them) but individuals (or now corporations) who think they can run their wharf (now terminal) more efficiently than the next guy, taking business away from him or attracting entire new shipments.
If you are leaving from say, Rotterdam, it doesn't really matter whether you go to Boston, New York/New Jersey, Philadelphia or Baltimore cost wise, what you want to know is which port will get your cargo off the ship fastest and get your ship back on the water in the shortest period of time. So cities are competing with eachother, and inside ports, terminals are competing with each other for business as well, In Baltimore, there are 14 different terminals (with 7 different operators) competing for business. Some specialize in bulk goods, others in cars, others in containers. P&O operates the Seadirk, Dundalt and Port Locust terminals. Basically, for a fee, they do the loading and offloading of about 35% of the cargo, that travels through Baltimore. They don't own it, they have a renewable 6 year contract to operate it. they pay a fee to the Port of Baltimore and collect fees from shipping companies. If fact, the entire capacity of these terminals is tied up to several companies already, only three companies have exclusive access to Seadirk.
As for the labour question, the Port of Baltimore requires that all Stevedores at the port be certified by the ILA. So they couldn't hire non-union employees even if they wanted to, it's in their contract.
as to security, that is provided by the Coast Guard and Homeland Security and the Port itself, although the contractor usually hires private security for their operations as well. the Contractor doesn't inspect containers and ships, the Coast Guard does.
Now, we can discuss whether this is a good thing or not, but it has been standard practice around the world for a century or more, and in the US since basically the inception of ports.
Hope that clears things up for you.
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