The International Dockworkers Association (ILA), U.S. East and Gulf Coast dock employers have not been involved in contract negotiations since June, and a 90-day timer has begun to restart negotiations and discuss details of a range of complex issues. Royalties, labor rules, and labor jurisdiction. Compared to the scale of the challenges facing both sides, REACHED IN THE INTERIM AGREEMENT REACHED LAST WEEK TO END A THREE-DAY STRIKEThe salary increase seems trivial. The wage agreement to end the strike is only “temporary” and is only one of several other items that still need to be negotiated between now and the new deadline of January 15, according to a management source, however, the source said that some factors indicate that the upcoming talks are expected to resume in a few weeks It is difficult to reach a consensus on these issues, the issues are both detailed and complex, yet the United States Maritime Union (USMX) and the ILA have not met face-to-face since suspending negotiations in June last year, although the USMX has tried several times to restart negotiations but have failed End of life. Due to the lack of response from the unions,USMX filed an unfair labor action case with the National Labor Relations Board on September 26,Trying to force the unions back to the negotiating table.
During the two-week tension and three-day stoppage prior to the strike, USMX has not been able to restart formal negotiations, reportedly making several attempts by employers to directly discuss wage issues with the unions during the stoppage, rather than having face-to-face talks with the unions through intermediaries of the Biden administration. The source said that because the 62% wage increase was an unprecedented proposal to unions, the USMX would find it difficult to make headway on the ILA's other key demands, especially since the proposal only exacerbates a long-standing disconnect with the ocean view. That's why USMX will do its best to resist union requests to revoke employer automation rights stipulated in previous contracts. ILA President and long-time opponent of automation Harold Daggett says ILA is seeking“The language of absolute, relentless attack, indicating that there is no automation or semi-automation”. If agreed to in the final contract, the installation of semi-automated equipment in ports in Virginia and at global container terminals in Bayonne, New Jersey, will be prohibited in the future.
The reason USMX resisted this demand was to preserve the growth opportunities of the US market. Carriers hope to achieve growth, but hardly any docks have been built — the Hugh K. Leatherman facility, which opened in Charleston in 2021, is the first new U.S. dock to open since 2009 — a key means of boosting container TEU growth is to seal terminals. The only way to do it is through automation. This is not to say that every port aspires to automation — most ports do not consider costs, but operators do not want to block this possibility because if they give in now, they may never get back the rights to automation in the future.
According to the Business JournalIn a shared document, USMX last week confidentially told the Biden administration: “As U.S. consumer demand and exports continue to grow, ports must be able to achieve densification, and if new technologies are not implemented, U.S. ports do not have sufficient land or berthing capacity to cope with future trade growth.”
Finally, after what was described last week as a lackluster experience, USMX seemed unwilling to budge on key issues such as automation, when they were prevented from returning to direct negotiations with the unions each time — a standard practice for decades, with the two sides following a decades-long process in negotiating previous contracts, at most Finally, at the behest of some airline headquarters, they understood on Thursday a unified position on the issue of wages and the need to negotiate in person.
Despite enormous pressure in multiple virtual and face-to-face meetings with the Biden administration over the past two weeks, USMX board members, including carriers and shipping terminal operators, were united in their support of a roughly 50% pay raise proposal. According to a source, a virtual meeting was held on the morning of October 3, US Eastern Time, which was only attended by the CEO of the group, and the proposals were rejected by the operator's headquarters on October 3.
Administration officials say the pressure on the White House is reflected in the intensifying two-week campaign of Biden administration officials, including Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Labor Secretary Julie Su and White House Office Director Jeff Zients. In the weeks prior to the strike, senior executives called USMX on a polite phone call, followed by a series of higher-level meetings with industry officials, and eventually a conference call exclusively for the group's CEO, after which a tentative deal was quickly reached. This includes senior USMX staff and board members being summoned to Washington for a short period of time, as well as a telephone conference with the CEO of the United States Carrier and the CEO of the Marine Terminal Operator, respectively. In a series of meetings, Biden administration officials invariably issued the same or similar message as the unions: Basically, because shipping companies made record profits during the pandemic, they had a responsibility to pay wages to avoid further confusion. The problem has always been the impending presidential election and the administration, which seems determined to avoid the politically damaging disruptions of the last few weeks of the campaign, which they fear is caused by the day-long strike.
Now, the USMX must reintegrate, as friendly, even cooperative working relationships established since 1977 have ruptured in the past few months, and negotiations with the unions may resume in the coming weeks.
