Negotiations between the International Longshoremen’s Association and the US Maritime Alliance (USMX) are scheduled to resume under the auspices of a federal mediator today as the clock ticks down to the February 6 expiry of the master contract covering some 15,000 dockers on the US east and Gulf coasts.
Representatives from the union and the employers are scheduled to meet for three days, through to Thursday, in New Jersey.
Negotiations between the International Longshoremen’s Association and the US Maritime Alliance (USMX) are scheduled to resume under the auspices of a federal mediator today as the clock ticks down to the February 6 expiry of the master contract covering some 15,000 dockers on the US east and Gulf coasts.
Representatives from the union and the employers are scheduled to meet for three days, through to Thursday, in New Jersey.
Unless an accord is reached or another contract extension is agreed, this round of talks figures to be the last major meeting between the parties before the contract expires.
Shippers and cargo interests are following the developments with anxiety, as the outcome of the talks and the prospect, or otherwise, of a strike or lockout have material implications on their sourcing and supply-chain decisions.
A situation involving some 4,500 ILA dockers in New York-New Jersey, the biggest port affected by the dispute and the home base of ILA president Harold Daggett, is also woven into the picture.
Region-level talks in New York-New Jersey collapsed three weeks ago after the union rejected the offers made by its local counterpart, the New York Shipping Association.
NYSA head Joe Curto and members of the ILA local negotiating team are also involved in the national-level talks being conducted with the USMX.
NYSA spokesperson Beverly Fedorko told Lloyd’s List that regional talks involving the union and the NYSA have resumed informally, as part of the main talks, but not officially.
The union and the NYSA are at loggerheads over alleged “archaic” contractual work practices in New York-New Jersey, which are different from the regimes in some other major ports. Employers complain that this arrangement requires more extensive staffing levels and obliges them to pay higher overtime.
At the national level, ILA and USMX previously have talked about an agreement “in principle” on the most contentious issue that divides them — container royalties — and reported progress on the issue of automation.
The master contract for ILA dockers at harbours from Maine to Texas ran out at the end of September last year. Two extensions were agreed, to December 29 and then February 6.
The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, which is tasked with “preserving and promoting labour-management peace and co-operation”, intervened last summer,hoping to secure an agreement.
In his last public statement on January 17, FMCS director George Cohen said the parties “made progress” at the last round of talks held January 15-17 and agreed to continue talking, but provided no other details.
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