A gantry crane stands in the yard of the APM Terminal at the Port of Mobile in Mobile, Alabama, USA, Thursday, July 20, 2017.
Bloomberg Bloomberg Getty Images
The International Longshoremen’s Association, which represents unionized workers at East Coast and Gulf Coast ports, said Monday that it has postponed talks scheduled for this week with the United States Maritime Alliance as part of negotiations over a new labor contract.
The ILA said in a release that it canceled talks with port management to discuss a new labor deal after discovering that automated technology was being used by APM Terminals and Maersk, the world’s second largest shipping company and APM Terminal’s parent company, for processing. trucks at port terminals without union workers. The union said the “automated gate” system was initially identified at the Port of Mobile, Alabama, but the union indicated the technology was being used at other ports.
“Here we go again! This is another example of USMX members unilaterally circumventing our coast-wide Master Contract. This is a clear violation of our agreement with USMX, and we will not tolerate it anymore,” said the union in a release. “There is no point in trying to negotiate a new agreement with USMX when one of the major companies continues to violate our current agreement with the sole purpose of eliminating ILA jobs through automation,” said ILA president Harold J. Daggett.
A Maersk spokesman said in an email statement that Terminal APM remains “in compliance with the ILA / USMX Master Contract.”
“We are disappointed that the ILA has chosen to make selected details of the negotiations that are active in an effort to create additional influence for other requests. We will continue to engage with all stakeholders, including the ILA, to solve the problem,” the Maersk spokesman said .
USMX could not immediately be reached for comment.
The ILA is the largest longshore union in North America, representing 85,000 members. The ILA master contract with the United States Maritime Alliance – which represents terminal operators and sea operators – is set to expire on September 30. May 17 was the initial cutoff date set by the union for the local contract to agree to the overall master. the contract can then be negotiated.
Back in July, Daggett, the union’s chief negotiator, has said he wanted a good economic deal for members, which includes the union’s opposition to automatic port and exclusive port contracts for its members. During a speech before union members that month, Daggett vowed the ILA would not take a back seat to anyone. “It’s time for foreign companies like Maersk and MSC to realize that you need us as much as you need us,” he said.
The ILA indicated in a release that it will not meet with the USMX until the “automatic gate” issue is resolved.
Despite the history of this union and the port reached an agreement in recent decades, logistics companies and shippers have expressed concern about the risk of strikes, with other cargo orders for the peak shipping season moving back to West Coast ports.
During West Coast International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) contract negotiations between 2022 and 2023, cargo processing stalled after several deliberate labor slowdowns and stoppages. At Canada’s West Coast Ports ILWU, a 13-day strike left more than $12 billion worth of trade stuck at sea and took months to clear a backlog of containers. That led to a reverse trade flow situation, with more cargo volume being sent to ports including New York/New Jersey and Virginia to avoid labor disputes.
The current ILA contract has union members making between $20-$37 an hour, according to a previous CNBC report. Depending on seniority, skill level, hazard pay, overtime differential, plus tonnage bonus (which can be between $15,000-$20,000 per year), a longshoreman can make between $150,000-$250,000 per year. Port insiders told CNBC earlier this year that the ILA was targeting a bigger raise than the 32% negotiated by the ILWU in its new six-year contract. ILA is also said to be looking to secure a generous bonus package. In July, the leadership of the ILA pointed to the Great Lakes District of the union, which obtained a 40% increase in wages and benefits for a new six-year contract. There is no definitive salary increase target made by the ILA.
The final six-year contract between the port and ILA was signed in late September 2018, which Daggett called at the time “the largest contract in ILA history.”