Longshore labor

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association released a joint statement on Tuesday saying they have come together on at least one topic, and a highly contentious one at that: health benefits.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union ratified a new collective bargaining agreement with grain handlers in the Pacific Northwest, spelling the end to an embittered, two-year battle between the two parties and allowing the union to focus on still-unresolved coastwide container talks.

Retailers are growing anxious over the continuing lack of a U.S. West Coast longshore labor agreement.

The Port of Portland, Oregon, on Aug. 22 announced the cancellation of a contract covering two reefer jobs with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, citing dips in productivity at its Terminal 6 facility.

The largest International Longshoremen’s Association local in Baltimore is disputing an arbitrator’s ruling that the union is liable for $3.86 million in damages for a strike that idled the port for three days last October.

The SSA Marine terminal at the Port of Oakland remained closed Tuesday because longshoremen refused to report to their jobs, even though the anti-Israel demonstrators who had blocked entrance to the facility on Sunday were long gone.

Demonstrators protesting events in Gaza idled a Zim Integrated Shipping Services vessel at the Port of Oakland on Sunday, and the ship could not be worked on the day shift Monday because the terminal operator could not secure enough labor.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union late Monday, Aug. 11, reached a tentative agreement with grain terminals in the Pacific Northwest, potentially ending two years of lockouts, picketing and interruptions in U.S. grain exports.

The International Transport Workers’ Federation and four Panamanian unions have accused the Panama Canal Authority of ongoing failure to provide decent pay and safe working conditions for more than 9,000 affiliated maritime workers in the canal zone.

The operator of Portland’s only container terminal charged this week that crane productivity hit a new low of 7.5 moves per hour because International Longshore and Warehouse Union members are stepping up their hard-timing tactics now that there is no longshore contract in effect.

The United Grain export terminal in Vancouver, Washington, which has been picketed by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union since dockworkers were locked out the facility in February 2013, is urging national farm interests to join the company in convincing the U.S. Department of Agriculture to assign inspectors so grain exports can return to normal.

Negotiations between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Northwest Grain Handlers Association, which represents a half-dozen export facilities in Oregon and Washington, are not concluded, though both parties say weekend bargaining has gone well.

Even though it now looks like it will be sometime in August before a new agreement between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and employers is in place, no one is panicking and tensions appear low. Why?

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union and Pacific Maritime Association have recessed contract negotiations for the coming week so ILWU officers can participate in unrelated contract talks with grain handlers in the Pacific Northwest.

A year-long contract dispute between United Grain Corp. and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union effectively shut down export operations at the Vancouver, Wash., facility this month following a decision by the governor of Washington to withdraw state trooper escorts for grain inspectors.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union today completed its two-day caucus in San Francisco, and the union will resume contract negotiations with the Pacific Maritime Association on Wednesday.

Contract negotiations between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association will resume on Wednesday after a recess Monday and Tuesday for a previously scheduled longshore division caucus.

While it is obvious that beneficial cargo owners shipped early this year through the West Coast in anticipation of the July 1 deadline for contract negotiations between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and waterfront employers, reports of cargo surges at Canadian and U.S. East Coast ports in May and June indicate retailers were also diverting shipments away from West Coast ports.

Contract negotiations between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association will recess beginning Monday for a previously scheduled union caucus.

Members of International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 8 in Portland walked off their jobs for about an hour today, but the dispute was not related to the coastwide ILWU contract negotiations underway in San Francisco.

The New York Shipping Association has hired approximately 300 dockworkers this year and will keep adding to its longshore workforce...

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association surprised watchers by announcing a 72-hour hiatus in their negotiations so that the union could deal with unrelated talks in the Pacific Northwest, and by extending the expired coastwide contract during the suspension of negotiations.

Contract negotiations between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association will resume at 1:30 p.m. today Pacific time, the ILWU confirmed.

Port workers in Chile have been on strike since July 8, according to maritime service provider Inchcape Shipping Services.

In the article titled “Teamsters initiate labor action at LA-Long Beach in midst of longshore talks,” published on July 6, a quote drawn from a tweet was misattributed to a longshoremen.

Cargo-handling and gate operations in Los Angeles-Long Beach were back to normal this afternoon after a waterfront arbitrator ordered longshoremen not to honor picket lines established by striking truck drivers.

Employers at the Port of Baltimore have asked a federal court to force an International Longshoremen’s Association local to pay $3.8 million in damages for a three-day strike last October.

International Longshore and Warehouse Union longshoremen in Southern California walked off their jobs about 9 a.m. at Evergreen and APL terminals in the Port of Los Angeles today.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union and U.S. West Coast waterfront employers have agreed to take a 72-hour break from negotiations to allow the union to attend “an unrelated negotiation” in the Pacific Northwest.

With no contract in place and a tradition of bucking its leadership to make a point, Southern California members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union may choose to honor Teamsters’ pickets on July 7 despite a pledge by its leadership in San Francisco that “cargo will keep moving” on the U.S. West Coast.

Events on the U.S. West Coast dominated the news this past week, as the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association continued negotiations toward a new contract.

The International Longshoremen’s Association, which represents dockworkers at U.S. East and Gulf Coast ports, yesterday wrote a letter of support to Robert McEllrath, president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, which is engaged in contract negotiations with West Coast employers.

Waterfront employers and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union did not reach a contract agreement by 5 p.m. today, as expected, but both sides indicated that there will be no cargo-handling disruption at U.S. West Coast ports while negotiations continue.

As the hours wane on the current contract between terminal operators and longshoremen on the U.S. West Coast, most shippers are taking the silence from both parties as a sign that negotiations are going well and will result in little disruption.

Contract negotiations between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association continued today, although reaching an agreement by the deadline of 5 p.m. on July 1 does not look likely.

Criticism of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union by an official of the International Association of Machinists provoked an angry response at the Agriculture Transportation Coalition conference in San Francisco at the weekend.

With the deadline for negotiating a West Coast dockworker contract at hand, the executive director of the Port of Oakland urged both sides to reach a successful conclusion for the good of all West Coast ports.

Retailers are making new pleas for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association to agree on a contract and avoid a West Coast port shutdown after the ILWU-PMA contract expires next week.