East Coast Port Union Preps Final Contract Demands
After a summer of stalled contract negotiations with their maritime employers, the union representing dockworkers across the East Coast and Gulf Coast ports has set dates for an internal meeting to discuss final contract demands.
The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) will present its final contract demands to the union’s wage scale committee delegates on Sept. 4-5 in Teaneck, N.J.
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“We are meeting to discuss our ILA demands with our ILA wage scale committee delegates for the next contract we sign with the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX),” said ILA president Harold Daggett in a statement. “But with less than 30 days to go before the end of our current Master Contract when these meetings are held, we must prepare our locals and our ILA membership for a strike on Oct. 1, 2024.”
The union has not returned to the bargaining table withe USMX. The ILA continues to hold firm on a strike, sending letters to all its employer groups indicating the current agreement between the two parties was expiring on Sept. 30, and would not be extended. This 60-day notice is required under federal labor law.
Shippers are in crunch time as the Sept. 30 negotiation deadline nears. As of July 29, containers took 61 days to be transported from China to the U.S. East Coast, according to data from the Flexport Ocean Timeliness Indicator. That means customers currently seeking to get product out of eastern Asia already may have to consider alternative options, such as shipping cargo to the West Coast ports instead, and moving them across the country via rail.
Last month, Port of Long Beach CEO Mario Cordero confirmed that the West Coast gateway was recapturing market share ahead of the peak shipping season as more freight shifted West.
According to Daggett, the union expects to put in “marathon hours” over the two-day stretch and will instruct local branches on strike strategies and what to expect if the ILA commences a work stoppage.
“My membership is 100 percent behind the ILA leadership team, and they know we want to deliver the best contract for them,” said Daggett. “If that means we have to go out on strike Oct. 1, they are ready to ‘hit the streets’ if our demands are not met.”
The union halted master contract talks with the USMX in June, with major sticking points including wages and automation at the ports, namely an “auto gate” system at the Port of Mobile that enables trucks to enter and exit a terminal and be autonomously processed without ILA labor. That system is reportedly being used at other ports as well.
The ILA said it will not meet with USMX until the gate issue in Mobile is resolved.
Under the terms of the current contract, the ports are not allowed to use fully automated terminals or equipment, with the technology defined as “machinery/equipment devoid of human interaction.”
Terms also require that there is no implementation of semi-automated equipment or technology “until both parties agree to workforce protections and staffing levels.”
The ILA already has called out the USMX members—which include major container shipping liners including Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), Maersk, Cosco Shipping, Hapag-Lloyd and CMA CGM, as well as terminal operators—for taking in “enormous” profits and sales in recent months.
Due to the big payouts in 2024, which are largely attributed to the continued diversions of container ships away from the Red Sea, the union is demanding wage hikes “commensurate with these revenues.”
Previous reports indicated that the ILA wants a wage increase larger than the 32 percent that was negotiated by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) when they agreed on a new six-year contract last summer, which prevented a strike at West Coast ports.
According to the current ILA contract, which was initially entered in September 2018, union members making a base wage range of $20-$39 per hour.
Both the union and the USMX started regional, local talks in late 2022 in an effort to secure an early agreement for dockworkers across 36 ports from Maine to Texas. But the negotiations stalled a year ago and were in limbo until Daggett said they should resume in February.
The ILA last held a strike in 1977 that lasted 45 days between October and November.