Longshore labor

After months of bitter negotiations, and with a tentative waterfront contract that is barely three days old, Southern California political, labor and management leaders on Monday said they will focus now on returning the largest U.S. port complex to normal operations.

With a tentative contract in hand, West Coast ports are easing their way back into full production, although the performance of longshoremen Monday was not consistent up and down coast, according to the Pacific Maritime Association.

The grievance machinery in the International Longshore and Warehouse Union contract was back in effect only 24 hours when the area arbitrator in Oakland on Sunday ruled that members of ILWU Local 10 had engaged in an illegal work stoppage.

The tentative coastwide contract agreement that was reached Friday evening by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association, while most welcome, is just the beginning of a long process West Coast ports must endure to recover from the backlog of containers and vessels that have overwhelmed their operations the past four months, and to restore their reputation among shippers.

Negotiators for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association have reached a tentative coastwide contract agreement for five years after more than nine months of bargaining.

The mayors of Long Beach and Los Angeles told negotiators for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association to reach a coastwide contract settlement now.

The U.S. Labor Secretary on Thursday told the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association that they have until Friday to reach a contract or they’ll have to negotiate in Washington D.C.

With West Coast ports reporting plunges in container volumes in January, port executives are becoming increasingly vocal in demanding that the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association end the impasse in negotiations that is ravaging their ports.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker has entered negotiations between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association, reflecting a ratcheting up of Obama administration pressure on both sides to reach a deal in order to end crippling West Coast port congestion.

Some West Coast employers are appealing directly to working longshoremen to scrutinize the details of the Pacific Maritime Association’s contract proposal, with the implication that they should not let this offer slip away because they won’t receive a better one.

ICTSI, which operates Portland’s only container terminal, will seek to find a replacement in the trans-Pacific trades when Hanjin Shipping Co. ends its service at the Pacific Northwest port on March 9.

With at least 50 container ships anchored off the West Coast on Tuesday, the eyes of the international trade community were focused on San Francisco to learn if U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez could break the impasse in contract negotiations between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association.

U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas E. Perez’s meetings with West Coast longshore union and employer negotiators have generated hope, skepticism — and questions.

U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas E. Perez is scheduled to meet Tuesday with West Coast longshore union and management negotiators in an effort to end a bargaining standoff that’s causing increasing pain across supply chains.

President Obama is sending Labor Secretary Tom Perez to California to meet with International Longshore and Warehouse Union and Pacific Maritime Association negotiators to help them reach a contract as West Coast congestion nears a breaking point.

The Obama administration is under growing pressure to prod negotiators to reach a deal on a West Coast labor contract, and to intervene if the ports’ months-long congestion keeps edging toward a total shutdown.

What is the true impact of the West Coast labor showdown on U.S. agricultural exports? There is controversy over the data.

The president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union recorded a video message urging members to support ILWU contract negotiators and ignore “bullshit” from the Pacific Maritime Association.

The Pacific Maritime Association said its members will suspend U.S. West Coast vessel operations on four of the next five days rather than provide longshoremen with holiday or weekend pay for “severely diminished productivity.”

Waterfront employers and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union are making what could be a last-ditch effort to win the hearts and minds — and pocketbooks — of the ILWU rank and file as coastwide contract negotiations may be hopelessly gridlocked.

U.S. West Coast employers on Monday blasted International Longshore and Warehouse Union negotiators, implying they are holding back rank-and-file members from even voting on what employers consider to be a generous contract over a demand that the ILWU be able to unilaterally fire waterfront arbitrators.

Operations at West Coast ports were scaled back this weekend as employers balanced a need to reduce the container backlogs that are choking marine terminals with a desire to cut labor costs, while work slowdowns by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union show no sign of ending.

Some 40 container ships were anchored at ports up and down the West Coast on Friday, promising more delays into next week and well beyond that after the Pacific Maritime Association announced on Friday that terminals won’t handle vessels over the weekend in an effort to clear backlogs.

U.S. retailers’ frustration with West Coast port congestion hit a boiling point on Friday after terminal operators announced they would suspend vessel work over for the weekend, in order to clear mounting backlogs of cargo.

With both the Pacific Maritime Association and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union trying to avoid an employer lockout or a strike by longshoremen, the fate of the current coastwide negotiations could depend on what is largely a local issue.

Pacific Maritime Association CEO James McKenna on Wednesday released details of the employers’ contract offer to U.S. West Coast longshoremen, a comprehensive offer the waterfront employer group hopes will head off the need for a lockout or strike by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union during negotiations that appear to be at an impasse.

Amid a flurry of rumors that contract negotiations between the International Longshore and Warehouse and the Pacific Maritime Association are in danger of collapsing, PMA CEO James McKenna will hold a teleconference at 2 p.m. Pacific today to update the media on the negotiations.

Financial impacts of port congestion on the U.S. West Coast are extending into odd corners of the American economy, including New Orleans’ annual carnival season that culminates Feb. 17 with Mardi Gras.

Harbor truckers in Los Angeles-Long Beach are preparing to legally challenge the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and marine terminal operators as soon as union mechanics attempt to detain trucker-owned or leased chassis at the ports under a reported agreement the ILWU reached with employers last week in coastwide contract negotiations.

Vessels are backing up at an alarming rate at West Coast ports due to congested marine terminals and work slowdowns by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.

The Philippines-based terminal operator ICTSI, which operates the Port of Portland’s only container terminal, said Wednesday it is experiencing even more intensive hard-timing tactics by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union than at other West Coast ports, and continued job actions could threaten the terminal’s viability.

Dockworkers at the Port of Portland, Ore. shut down the port’s only container terminal on Tuesday to protest the firing of some longshoremen last week.

Negotiators for the Pacific Maritime Association and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union reached a tentative agreement on the chassis maintenance and repair issue that has been the major roadblock to reaching a new waterfront contract at West Coast ports.

Congestion and delays at U.S. West Coast ports meant UPS had to scramble to get containerized goods into its inland delivery network and to customers. Higher purchased transportation costs were a factor in lower fourth-quarter earnings.

The Pacific Maritime Association on Friday released detailed accounts of the dramatic drop in longshore productivity at West Coast ports that began in late October and continues to contribute to stifling port congestion.

Thousands of supporters of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union are expected to attend a rally this evening near the Port of Los Angeles to urge waterfront employers to resolve what has become the most controversial issue of West Coast contract negotiations — jurisdiction over chassis maintenance and repair.

A growing number of trade associations that have signed their names to a series of letters calling for a resolution to West Coast longshore talks points to the widening economic impact of port delays that have now lasted for months.

Rep. Janice Hahn said Los Angeles-Long Beach marine terminal operators’ ending of night shifts equates to a “nighttime lockout” of dockworkers. She urged employers to “not act unilaterally and hurt port operations.”

Longshore contract negotiations on the U.S. West Coast have degenerated into a war of attrition in which the union’s work slowdowns have significantly increased operating costs for shipping lines and terminal operators, and the employers are countering by reducing work opportunities for rank-and-file longshoremen.

Could the industry be approaching a point of no return in West Coast longshore talks?