With longshore labor peace secured, we at the New York Shipping Association will be focused on implementing the provisions of the new six-year East Coast and New York/New Jersey labor agreements, especially those that impact productivity and the competitive position of the Port of New York and New Jersey.
Our agreement contains provisions that set productivity standards and year-over-year incremental improvements along with corrective actions if not achieved. It’s a collaborative process between labor and management. We have also agreed on changing the lead-time when labor needs to be ordered to work vessels to bring the ordering time closer to when the activity takes place, especially on weekends.
Another key focus will be bolstering our labor supply to accommodate the sustained growth we’ve seen over the past five years and to offset attrition over that period as well. We will have two special retirement windows over the six-year agreement to allow long-time employees to retire and be replaced with incoming labor. Filling all of these positions will be required to achieve our productivity goals. For the port as a whole, concerns with labor supply also go well beyond the longshore roles. As co-chair of the Council on Port Performance (CPP), NYSA is concerned with the labor supply throughout the entire supply chain. If any link in the supply chain fails, it invariably impacts the business volume of the port.
This is why in 2019 it is so important that the Workforce Development Committee of the CPP, which works with all stakeholders, continues to align the needs of the supply chain with educators and community- based organizations, to build awareness and curriculum to ensure that supply chain opportunities are identified and able to be filled by trained, skilled workers.