Longshore labor

Greek longshoremen have joined a 24-hour nationwide strike today called by labor unions to protest austerity measures imposed by international lenders on the crisis-mired country.

Edward Wytkind, president of the AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department, urged the governors of New York and New Jersey to force a bistate crime watchdog agency to approve a longshore hiring plan in the Port of New York and New Jersey.

International Longshoremen’s Association officials and port employers told an industry forum that a standoff with the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor over longshore hiring threatens to undermine productivity gains in a new ILA contract.

International Longshoremen’s Association President Harold Daggett said ILA members in the Port of New York and New Jersey are “fed up” with hiring delays he blames on the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor.

Former Marine Engineers’ Beneficial Association President Jesse M. Calhoon died this week at the age of 90 in Naples, Fla.

The New York Shipping Association and the International Longshoremen’s Association said “bureaucratic delays” by the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor are jeopardizing productivity at the East Coast’s busiest port.

The Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor has scheduled a series of public hearings to highlight what commission official contend are discriminatory hiring practices for longshore workers in the Port of New York and New Jersey.

Transportation and warehousing businesses added 23,000 jobs in September, mostly in transit and passenger transportation, as total nonfarm employment increased by 148,000 jobs, the U.S. Labor Department said on Oct. 22.

An arbitrator’s ruling that forced striking Baltimore longshoremen back to work on containers and roll-on, roll-off cargo has implications for other East and Gulf Coast ports still negotiating local issues not covered by a coastwide master contract.

International Longshoremen’s Association workers agreed Friday to return to work for 90 days while negotiators work on a local contract that triggered a three-day strike this week at the Port of Baltimore.

An arbitrator ruled Friday that an International Longshoremen’s Association local in Baltimore violated a no-strike clause in a coastwide master contract covering work on containers and roll-on, roll-off cargo.

Striking Baltimore longshoremen resumed working Friday on containers and roll-on, roll-off cargo covered by a coastwide master contract while arbitration proceedings continued, a management official said.

Striking longshoremen continued to shutter the Port of Baltimore for a third day on Friday.

A longshoremen’s union local and employer representatives plan to meet with an arbitrator on Oct. 18 to try to resolve a strike that idled public docks at the Port of Baltimore for a second day today.

A longshoremen’s strike that has idled the Port of Baltimore continued into its second day today.

A U.S. district court in Oregon on Oct. 15 issued a preliminary injunction intended to prevent the International Longshore and Warehouse Union from picketing a barge company that shuttles grain on the Snake and Columbia rivers to the Marubeni-Columbia Grain elevator in Portland.

Italy faces a 24-hour port strike on Nov. 8 as the country’s three main labor unions attempt to break a deadlock in negotiations for a new labor contract.

Several members of Congress have asked U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman to use the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement talks to help resolve the months-long lockout of International Longshore and Warehouse Union grain workers in the Pacific Northwest by two Japanese grain conglomerates.

Former International Longshoremen’s Association President Richard P. Hughes Jr. died today at the age of 79 in Baltimore, Md.

The International Longshoremen’s Association, AFL-CIO today announced that it will remain an affiliate of the American Federation of Labor, Congress of Industrial Organizations.

New Jersey’s Gov. Chris Christie has vetoed the Truck Operator Independent Contractor Act, which would have reclassified port truckers and parcel delivery truckers as employees...

Maritime labor unions were told last week they must intensify their efforts to educate Congress and the public about the national significance of infrastructure development and laws that preserve American maritime jobs, or risk even deeper cuts to these programs.

The county prosecutor in Vancouver, Wash., will not file charges against a longshoreman accused of intentionally damaging machinery at the United Grain export terminal.

A faster-paced economy wasn't evident in the August employment numbers for freight transportation industries.

The AFL-CIO and its Maritime Trades Department are quite willing to help longshore unions resolve jurisdictional issues on the waterfront, but only if the dockworkers remain part of the umbrella organization, MTD President Mike Sacco said Thursday.

International Longshoremen’s Association members in Hampton Roads voted 738-284 to ratify a six-year local contract, the ILA said. Dockworkers in the port had twice voted down previous proposals.

International Longshoremen’s Association members ended a brief walkout at the Port of Charleston after employers obtained a temporary restraining order from a federal judge.

Fed up with a perceived lack of support from the AFL-CIO during its many recent jurisdictional disputes, one of the organization’s most powerful members, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, is pulling out of the umbrella labor organization.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union will take to a federal appellate court its jurisdictional battle over the handling of refrigerated containers at the Port of Portland, the ILWU stated in a press release.

International Longshoremen’s Association clerks and checkers at the Port of Charleston walked off their jobs on Thursday after refusing assignment to additional duties, union officials said.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union, in a determined effort to protect its jurisdiction — or carve out new jurisdiction — is escalating its picketing activities in Seattle, Portland and Vancouver, Wash.

The International Longshoremen’s Association reports progress on ILA local agreements in Virginia and Baltimore that remain unsettled four months after ratification of a coastwide master contract for East and Gulf Coast ports.

The New York Shipping Association and International Longshoremen’s Association have begun referrals for pre-clearance of candidates for New York-New Jersey dockworker jobs that will open up during the next few months.

International Longshoremen’s Association President Harold Daggett and other ILA officials met with employer representatives Tuesday in an effort to reach agreement on a local contract covering about 1,650 dockworkers in the Port of Virginia.

The International Longshoremen’s Association said it is in “full solidarity” with owner-operator container haulers who have suffered “undue hardship” during this summer’s operational delays at the Port of New York and New Jersey.

All of the marine terminals at the Port of Oakland were back in operation by mid-morning Tuesday following more trucker demonstrations and a claim by dockworkers that the trucker pickets presented a health and safety issue at one of the terminals.

The Maritime Labour Convention, an International Labour Organization agreement established in 2006 to embody all existing global maritime labor conventions and recommendations...

International Longshoremen’s Association President Harold Daggett plans to spend next week in Norfolk and Baltimore to discuss deadlocked local contract negotiations with ILA members and employers.