ILA, Ports Avert Walkout With Tentative Contract

This story appears in the Feb. 11 print edition of Transport Topics.

Dockworkers and management at ports along the East and Gulf coasts reached a tentative, six-year agreement that averted a potential strike that could have started on Feb. 6.

The agreement announced on Feb. 1 between the International Longshoremen’s Association and the U.S. Maritime Alliance includes dockworkers at 15 ports from Maine to Texas. That covers about 45% of U.S. waterborne trade, generating an average of 30,000 truck shipments daily.

The deal leaves unresolved local contract issues and questions about how contract terms will affect truckers and the chassis they operate.

Previous statements from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service disclosed areas of agreement between union and management, including container royalty payments and chassis maintenance, without giving details.

The royalties are paid to ILA workers under a practice dating to the 1960s, when containerization began. Some sources believe the agreement language caps the royalty payments and gradually cuts them.

“At this point, all the terms in the tentative agreement are a matter of speculation,” said Peter Gatti, executive vice president at the National Industrial Transportation League. “The parties are very guarded about the terms of the agreement. We are just happy that a tentative agreement was reached, and a potential work stoppage was put off.”

One remaining question is how to resolve local contract issues. The reported local issues include problems with New York and New Jersey, where the two sides have yet to decide work crew size and duty schedules.

“There is a lot of uncertainty until they get these local talks wrapped up,” Gatti said. “The union made it very clear they want to present it to membership as a package.”

Another broad question is how chassis maintenance might change in the future.

Curtis Whalen, executive director of the Intermodal Motor Carriers Conference, said he believed the tentative agreement includes a requirement that ILA workers maintain chassis, even if the equipment is sold to other parties.

However, he said enforcement of that requirement probably would be more difficult as chassis ownership transitions away from the ocean carriers.

“Who knows how that contract provision gets enforced outside the docks?” he said.

Whalen also said the news of the tentative agreement “would be received very positively by truckers.”

“If the tentative agreement holds, the new labor contract will bring much-needed certainty and predictability to the supply chain,” said Matthew Shay, president of the National Retail Federation, which claims its members support 25% of American jobs.

Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service Director George Cohen announced the settlement.

“Local negotiations are ongoing and will continue without interruption to any port operation,” Cohen’s statement said.

The USMX declined comment.

“I know ILA members will be satisfied with the results of our negotiating efforts thus far,” said ILA President Harold Daggett in a statement posted on the ILA Web site.

Daggett’s statement said no details will be released to members until the master and local agreements are reached.

Negotiations began in March of last year. The expiration date of the contract was extended twice.

Meanwhile, on the West Coast, a long-delayed ratification vote was set for Feb. 6 on a tentative agreement covering clerical workers in the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, Calif. Results weren’t announced as of press time.

The clerks affiliated with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union struck for eight days in late November and early December, disrupting West Coast cargo trade.

Also on the labor front, talks continue between the Teamsters and Arkansas Best Corp.’s ABF Freight System unit. That contract expires on March 31.