Negotiations between port owners on the West coast and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union are expected to intensify against a backdrop of still-lingering import supply chain issues.
The current contract between the ILWU and the Pacific Maritime Association is set to expire on June 30. That contract covers some 29 ports handling around 60% of all imports on the West Coast.
Those imports include everything from scrap metal to automobile parts and electronics from manufacturers in such countries as China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam.
Talks between the union and port owners are expected to center on pay, work hours, and benefits issues, along with the future of the 24-hour a day operation implemented at the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles late last year.
Because of supply chain issues and ships being bottlenecked at many of the Western ports in 2021, the ILWU, notes John Drake, “comes to the negotiating table with significant leverage.”
In an essay published on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s website, Drake, vice-president of transportation and infrastructure with the chamber, adds: “The ports are under immense pressure to improve service levels and not have a repeat of last year.”
Drake also notes that the ILWU spearheaded work slowdowns in 2002, 2008, and 2014, as a bargaining tool.
In an open letter, Willie Adams, ILWU president, has expressed concerns about specter of automation along the docks, particularly “using robots instead of Americans workers to operate heavy equipment that moves cargo.”
Adams has further contended that such automation “not only kills good jobs but does not move more cargo.”
In an interview with the Los Angeles Business Journal, Jim McKenna, chief executive of the PMA, said he is hopeful that labor talks will soon prove fruitful. “Like all other contracts, it will have a start, it will have a finish, and whatever happened in the middle will be between the two sides.”
By Garry Boulard
