by Lloyd's List
5 March 2025 (Lloyd's List) - US east and Gulf coast port employers with the United States Maritime Alliance traded their automation demands for new language on technology to get the new labour over the line, a TPM25 by S&P Global forum heard.
The International Longshore Association went on a brief strike on October 1, shutting down US east and Gulf coast ports from Maine to Texas. The strike ended on October 3 after the ILA and the USMX tentatively agreed a 62% wage increase and to extend the previous contract until January 15, allowing more time to overcome the negotiation’s main hurdle – automation.
With the union vociferously rejecting any automation language in the contract, the expectation was that a new contract wouldn’t be reached before the deadline, and another massive strike seemed likely.
However, the sides announced a new six-year deal on January 8, one week before the deadline. On February 25, the new contract was ratified by the ILA’s rank-and-file.
During a panel discussion in TPM25 on Monday, Ports America chief executive Matt Leech offered some insight into how the automation hurdle was overcome.
“Automation is technology, technology does not necessarily mean automation,” explained Leech. “Those are two very different things.”
The contract “prohibits full automation - literally no robots doing the work”, and could be described as a “job protection contract that [says] ultimately we need people to do the job”, Leech said.
However, the employers are “permitted, encouraged to provide technology to assist the person to do that job more effectively”.
“And so, we have a very clear pathway in the new agreement as marine terminal operators to use technology to deliver better performance for our customers and make the most out of what we have,” said Leech.
“What we can't do is simply replace a person with a machine, and that’s fine. That was never the intent of [operators], given the scale of what we operate on the east coast and Gulf coasts.
Leech said it was about “how we use technology in the 21st century” and “optimise performance”.
“That was the real intent. And we have very clear pathways in the agreement for that,” he said.
“So, this is the trade off with labour. No functional, real automation. However, very clear pathway to use technology to improve productivity and efficiency.”
One example of how employers could begin implementing efficiency-boosting technologies was remote operations of equipment.
According to Leech, there is a “very clear pathway” to take drivers out of the equipment, “not on the ship-to-shore cranes, but on the yard cranes”, and have them operate the equipment remotely from an office.
There would still be a driver operating the machine, but “we avoid dispatching a driver out to the equipment”, saving time on shift changes, said Leech.
“So, these are time saving functions where that operator doesn’t need to be in the equipment to do the job.
“We have technology that will allow the operator do that job in a remote way,” Leech explained. He said that Ports America plans to begin implementing technology for remote yard operations “almost immediately” in some terminals.
That capability had already been built but the operator never went forward with its implementation “given the structure of the old contract”, Leech said.
However, “the new contract is very clear. We can do it.”
