ILA and USMX Set to Return to Negotiations in November
A month after cooler heads prevailed and the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) ended a three-day strike at the East and Gulf Coast ports, the union and its maritime employers will return to the contract negotiation table.
In a joint statement, the ILA and United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) said they would resume master contract discussions in November to discuss “all outstanding issues” to reach a new agreement.
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After three days a strike action, the parties extended their current master contract through Jan. 15, 2025, pushing a potential work stoppage after the 2024 presidential election and mere weeks ahead of the Lunar New Year.
On Oct. 3, both parties reached a tentative agreement that would raise wages 61.5 percent over the next six years, but that is still “contingent on bargaining all open issues.”
The two sides will not discuss details of negotiations with the media prior to these meetings.
“The ILA and USMX welcome the opportunity to return to the bargaining table and get a new agreement in place as soon as possible,” said both parties late Friday.
The parties have not indicated when the first meetings will take place, but said the respective negotiating committees will meet in New Jersey.
If both the ILA and USMX agree on terms for a new master contract proposal, the union would present the deal to its wage scale committee for approval, and later, to the workers for ratification.
While the concerns of a labor stoppage have been pushed back, a resolution is far from over and there’s no guarantee that a deal will be done. Flexport CEO and founder Ryan Petersen predicted on X Wednesday that there was a 60 percent chance of a port strike in January, before remarking again “I might take this to 80 percent” based on private messages he received on the platform.
By all accounts, there is still plenty of work to be done to get closer to a deal. Automation has been a key area of contention for the union, which has sought a total ban on automated equipment across the East and Gulf Coast ports. The ILA pulled out of master contract negotiations in June due to the implementation of an automated gate at Alabama’s Port of Mobile.
Although reports have indicated that both parties would form a committee to examine automation in the ports as part of a new agreement, there hasn’t been any indicator of what that type of committee would entail.
The union is pushing for automation language to change from the current extended contract, whereas the ocean carriers and terminals want to keep that terminology the same in a new deal.
According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, all 10 of the largest U.S. container ports use some form of automation technology to process and handle cargo. At least one terminal at each port uses automation to optimize, track or communicate container movements. Five of the ports were on the East and Gulf Coasts, including New York & New Jersey, Savannah, Houston, Virginia and Charleston.
Four of the terminals also use automated cargo handling equipment to load, unload, and move containers.
That March 2024 report said automation offered mixed effects on the workforce, security and performance. The port stakeholders interviewed for the report indicated that the technologies could improve worker safety by separating humans from machines and reduce emissions by improving efficiency.
Other major issues still up in the air include jurisdiction protections, demands for improved health care benefits and the full share of “container royalties”—payments made to dockworkers to compensate for the long-term loss of jobs due to the use of containerized shipping.
The ILA has said it wants to secure jurisdiction protections so that workers can continue to handle tasks like manning cranes and servicing equipment. The union wants to prevent employers from outsourcing those jobs to non-union workers or automated systems
As far as the container royalties go, the ILA longshoremen are seeking 100 percent of the pay from their joint fund created and maintained with the USMX. The union contends that the funds were intended to be a wage supplement paid out to its members, not to be shared with employers.
The impacted ports from the three-day strike have largely resumed normal operations in the time since, with average waiting times for container ships to berth reaching two days at the Ports of New York & New Jersey, New Orleans and Charleston, according to Flexport.
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