Longshore labor

In an abrupt change of events that could lead to labor peace among office clerical workers in Southern California for the next five years, the president of International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 63 Office Clerical Unit said Thursday he signed individual contracts with three employers, and he has presented the same provisions to the 12 other employers in Los Angeles-Long Beach that have OCU contracts.

Hoping to avoid tumultuous negotiation like in 2010 and with shippers' patience already low, International Longshore and Warehouse Union office clerical workers in Los Angeles-Long Beach are expected to begin negotiations with employers in April — less than three months before the current contract expires.

A senior leader of the International Longshoreman’s Association expressed optimism on Wednesday over a multiyear contract extension with East and Gulf Coast employers but said it won’t happen by the end of the year.

The International Longshoremen’s Association has endorsed Hillary Clinton for president and will host the Democratic presidential frontrunner at a rally Saturday in Charleston, South Carolina.

The contentious debate over whether West Coast employers and dockworkers have the legal authority to perform safety inspections and repairs on chassis at marine terminals will most likely be resolved by a court, and it will be up to the chassis-leasing companies to initiate the legal action, according to freight forwarders and customs brokers.

Verbal abuse of harbor truck drivers at marine terminals by some members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union continues to happen despite efforts by the ports and the union to end the practice.

The great swell in U.S. transportation, warehousing and utility jobs receded in July after hitting historic heights in April and May, but demand for workers remains strong in a complex employment market. Hiring numbers, and separations, continue to rise.

The head of the Pacific Maritime Association raised the possibility of a contract extension or an early start to the next round of West Coast longshore contract talks, and said current bargaining practices are “not sustainable.”

Finland’s ports and rail freight trains are at a standstill as workers participate in the biggest nationwide strike since 1993 to protest the government’s latest austerity measures.

Officials of the International Longshoremen’s Association and United States Maritime Alliance said they’re committed to trying to work out East and Gulf coast port labor contract that would extend to 2025.

A motion to increase the pay for San Francisco Bar Pilots has been shelved, meaning shipowners whose ships transit San Francisco Bay won’t face the risk of having to pay more in pilotage fees for at least another year.

The past year was not good for importers and exporters that ship through the U.S. West Coast as they endured horrendous port congestion due to labor slowdowns and employer retaliation. But it was a great year for registered members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union who enjoyed their largest increase in average annual earnings in a decade.

The Pacific Maritime Association sees the medical provisions of the new International Longshore and Warehouse Union contract as a win-win proposition for both parties.

Tyson Foods was forced to redirect beef exports to alternative markets and sell them at lower prices during the recent U.S. West Coast port congestion, CEO Donald J. Smith told analysts.

Two months after the International Longshore and Warehouse Union contract was approved by the membership of the union and the Pacific Maritime Association, the Port of Oakland is a mess, with an acute shortage of labor causing extensive delays for truckers and shippers, resulting in cargo diversions to Southern California.

Hard to believe, but true: Just three and a half years ago, International Longshoremen’s Association President Harold Daggett was in Long Beach, warning the JOC’s Trans-Pacific Maritime conference about “dark clouds” over 2012’s soon-to-begin ILA contract negotiations.

Dennis Daggett, son of International Longshoremen’s Association President Harold Daggett, was elected Thursday to the union’s No. 2 post as several other mostly younger ILA officials also were elevated to higher positions.

Congressional proposals to clamp down on longshore unions in reaction to West Coast port slowdowns could backfire, warned the chief attorney for waterfront employers on the East and Gulf coasts.

George Cohen, retired director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, took a curtain call at this week’s International Longshoremen’s Association convention in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

The chief negotiator for East and Gulf waterfront employers told International Longshoremen’s Association officials that any long-term contract extension would involve “tweaks,” not a total rewrite of the current six-year agreement.

Efforts to repeal the Jones Act in the U.S. are part of a global campaign to weaken cabotage laws and undercut labor, said the president of a union representing U.S. seafarers.

A recently-launched Federal Maritime Commission Section 15 investigation of a terminal operators discussion agreement could have a chilling effect on the mandatory inspection of chassis by International Longshore and Warehouse Union mechanics at West Coast ports.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - International Longshoremen’s Association President Harold Daggett promised ILA convention delegates that any long-term contract extension will protect past union gains.

A union representing machinists is challenging the Long Beach Harbor Commission over a requirement that maintenance and repair work associated with the port’s proposed peak-season chassis pool be performed by International Longshore and Warehouse Union mechanics.

TRAC Intermodal, one of the largest chassis-leasing companies on the West Coast, threw a monkey wrench into a controversial clause in the new International Longshore and Warehouse Union contract by refusing to pay for mandatory roadability inspections by the union.

Dennis A. Daggett, son of International Longshoremen’s Association President Harold Daggett, is expected to win election next week to the union’s second-ranking office.

A ruling by the National Labor Relations Board in a jurisdictional dispute between the West Coast longshoremen and a union representing machinists could result in a number of job gains and millions of dollars in back wages and benefits for the latter if it is upheld on appeal.

The International Longshoremen’s Association and its U.S. East and Gulf coast employers plan additional meetings after two days of “productive” talks on a contract extension that could run to 202

U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez said Monday that bills before Congress seeking to avoid lengthy negotiations marked by slowdowns and employer retaliation that recently plagued West Coast ports aren’t the answer.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union doesn’t buy ocean carriers’ explanation that they stopped providing chassis to truckers and cargo interests in order to save money, said Bobby Olvera, president of ILWU Local 13 in Southern California.

U.S. agriculture shouldn’t expect dramatic improvements in cargo-handling productivity to come out of the new West Coast longshore contract, said Ed DeNike, chief operating officer at SSA Marine, said the contract itself will not deliver productivity.

The International Longshoremen’s Association and its East and Gulf Coast employers are exploring a long-term contract extension. Here’s a look back at the bargaining that led to their current six-year agreement.

The new or extended contract being explored by International Longshoremen’s Association and its East and Gulf Coast employers could run until 2025, seven years beyond the current agreement’s 2018 expiration.

A bill introduced in Congress on Friday would empower the president to intervene to halt port labor slowdowns as well as strikes, and would allow state governors to initiate the process for federal back-to-work injunctions.

The cost savings brought by mega-ships are decreasing and might not even be realized as container ships get ever larger, the International Transport Federation warns.

Truckers in Northern California Wednesday reported sporadic incidents of mandatory International Longshore and Warehouse Union inspections of trucker-controlled chassis at the Port of Oakland, but the ILWU international headquarters apparently has not yet issued a coastwide mandate on chassis inspections since the new waterfront contract was ratified on Friday.

Harbor drayage companies on the U.S. West Coast feared that a provision in the new International Longshore and Warehouse Union contract mandating longshore inspections of chassis would cause uncertainty and delays for truckers, but they didn’t imagine that it would happen so quickly.

The West Coast contract agreement that was ratified Friday by the membership of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, while applauded by cargo interests, carriers, ports and truckers, and rightfully so, will have a limited impact on West Coast port productivity and labor relations.

The membership of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Friday voted overwhelmingly to approve a new contract that should ensure labor peace at West Coast ports for at least the next four years.