by Lloyd's List
6 September (Lloyd's List) - A POTENTIALLY debilitating strike in US ports from Maine to Texas is inching closer to materialising, with less than 60 days remaining before the contract between US Maritime Alliance (USMX) and the International Longshoremen’s Association expires.
In a fiery, 22-minute video released by the union on Wednesday as its wage scale committee met in New Jersey to discuss wage demands and prepare for a potential strike, the ILA outlined the negotiation team’s remaining pain points and reiterated its threats.
“The [shipping companies] represented by the US Maritime Alliance might think the ILA won’t go on strike, but let me tell them and all of America: the ILA most definitely will hit the streets on October 1 if we do not get the kind of contract we deserve” ILA president Harold Daggett said.
The USMX said on July 30 that during the previous week, both parties filed documents with the Federal Mediation & Conciliation Service notifying the agency of a dispute between them.
“USMX has still been unable to secure a meeting with the ILA to resume negotiations on a new Master Contract,” the employers’ association said in a statement.
“USMX continues to meet with its members in preparation for the resumption of negotiations, and it remains committed to working with the ILA leadership on a new agreement.”
Should the devastating strike take place, it would come just over a month before the US president election.
The union endorsed Joe Biden in the 2020 election but was reportedly dissatisfied with the administration’s handling of the US west coast labour dispute in the past year and the wage increases it yielded for International Longshore and Warehouse Union dockworkers.
Daggett met with former US president and Republican nominee Donald Trump in November, where they had a “wonderful, productive 90-minute meeting”, according to a statement released by the ILA following the failed assassination attempt on Trump in July.
Daggett “enjoys a long relationship with Donald Trump going back decades in New York City”, according to the statement.
Denis Daggett, the union’s international vice-president who also featured in the video, said the three remaining pressure points were automation, “right of control”, and wages, with the latter being the key one.
“I believe the main issue of this contract, of course, is the economics. Our members deserve a fair and just economic package. Also, automation, which I believe we are going to be battling [for] the rest of our existence,” Daggett said.
“I also believe there is a right of control issue here because the carriers and terminal operators believe they relinquish all responsibility once a container is TIRed out of the terminal [prepared for road transport under the Transport Internationaux Routiers system]. We do not believe that is the case.”
It was not all bad news, with the younger Daggett saying the sides were able to resolve local issues in Boston, and that 90% of the local contracts in the South Atlantic were resolved.
However, the sides were at an impasse in the ports of Mobile, Tampa, and Jacksonville.
“These contracts must be resolved before October 1,” Daggett said.
Strike threat also looms on Canada’s west coast
The prospect of a strike on Canada’s west coast also moved closer to reality this week.
The British Columbia Maritime Employers’ Association, which represents maritime employers in Canada’s west coast ports, said on Wednesday that the International Longshore Warehouse Union Canada Local 514, which represents foremen, notified that it had received a strike mandate from its members.
Neither party has issued a 72-hour strike or lockout notice at the time the statement was issued, BCMEA noted.
The parties are slated for further hearings at the Canada Industrial Relations Board next week.
