Update: Dockworkers began a labor strike on Oct. 1 at all U.S. East and Gulf Coast container ports. The strike went into effect after the six-year master contract between the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) expired on Sept. 30. The National Retail Federation (NRF) on Tuesday said the strike could have “devastating consequences” for the economy. “NRF urges President Biden to use any and all available authority and tools— including use of the Taft-Hartley Act—to immediately restore operations at all impacted container ports, get the parties back to the negotiating table and ensure there are no further disruptions.” As retailers brace for the impact of the dockworker strike, the White House issued a statement on Tuesday from President Joe Biden saying he has “urged USMX, which represents a group of foreign-owned carriers, to come to the table and present a fair offer to the workers of the International Longshoremen’s Association that ensures they are paid appropriately in line with their invaluable contributions.”
Politicians and business groups have called on the Biden-Harris Administration to do more to prevent a possible coastwide longshore work stoppage. The leadership of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA), the largest union of maritime workers in North America, has warned of a potential strike beginning Oct. 1 if no agreement on a new labor contract is reached with the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX).
The contract between the ILA and the USMX covering East and Gulf Coast ports is set to expire on Sept. 30. A strike would affect retailers including convenience and grocery stores.
This is a “critical time as retailers prepare for the all-important holiday season, and we need every port in the country working at full capacity,” National Retail Federation Vice President for Supply Chain and Customs Policy Jonathan Gold said. “Many retailers have brought cargo in early and shifted to alternate ports as a precaution, but it is vital that labor and management at the East Coast and Gulf Coast ports actually sit down at the negotiating table and bargain in good faith for a new contract so we can avoid a disruption of any kind when their contract expires.”
According to a CBS News report a “total of 14 ports involving some 25,000 workers could be affected by the strike.”
The differences include pay as well as job security, with CBS reporting that “to protect job security, the ILA is demanding a complete ban on the automation of cranes, gates and container movements used in the loading or unloading of cargo.”
In a statement posted on Monday the union said: “USMX knows what our bottom line with wages needs to be for our ILA rank-and-file to ratify a new master contract agreement,” said Harold Daggett, the ILA’s International president and chief negotiator for the union that claims a membership of 85,000.
“They call me several times each week trying to get the ILA to accept a low-ball wage package,” he said.
Daggett said that ILA members are “not going to accept these insulting offers that are a joke considering the work my ILA longshore workers perform, and the billion dollar profits the companies make off the backs of their labor.”
On Thursday, USMX issued the following statement: “USMX has been clear that we value the work of the ILA and have great respect for its members. We have a shared history of working together and are committed to bargaining. Due to the ILA’s repeated refusal to come to the table and bargain on a new Master Contract, USMX filed an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) charge with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and requested immediate injunctive relief—requiring the Union to resume bargaining—so that we can negotiate a deal.”
ILA responded with a statement on its website saying the ILA regards the suit as “another publicity stunt by the employer group, and countered that foreign owned companies, represented by USMX set up shop at American ports, earn billions of dollars in revenues and profits, take those profits out of country, and fail to adequately compensate the ILA longshore workforce for their labor are engaging in a real ‘unfair labor practice’ and have been getting away with for decades.”
Republican Members of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the House of Representatives, led by T&I Committee Chairman Sam Graves (R-Missouri) and Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee Chairman Daniel Webster (R-Florida), have urged the White House to do everything in its power to prevent the work stoppage that could lead to “dire impacts to our supply chains, our economy, and the American consumer.”
In their Sept. 19 letter to the White House, the 69 Members of Congress said, that “given the devastating economic consequences of a potential strike and the Administration’s lack of engagement to date, we urge you to give immediate attention to this matter, to aid in these negotiations, and find a reasonable resolution to these contract disputes.”
The members of Congress explained that “if a work stoppage occurred at East and Gulf Coast ports in October, estimates suggest that a one-week strike would take until mid-November to recover from and clear the backlog of cargo.”
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