Longshore labor

An invaded ship is the latest job action by dockworkers at the port of Santos. They say they extend their existing three-day job action that ends Saturday if Brazil’s government does not agree to their pay/pension demands.

Just when conditions started to return to normal for shippers who use Santos, stevedores Wednesday will implement a three-day strike aimed at securing an agreed-to pay increase.

Protesters — seeking a special, community-based reservation program for jobs and education — blockaded all main highways and port connecting arteries.

Local trade sources said that labor groups are pressing for a reversal of an action by APM Terminals.

The two candidates standing for election appear to have identified the correct formula concerning two leadership factors.

While higher pay should improve labor relations, a host of other worker concerns remain unresolved.

The East Coast’s largest port, with the most complex negotiations, has reached an agreement. The International Longshoremen's Association wants all such local agreements to be completed before the master contract that covers the ports on both coasts can be ratified.

Shippers that send goods through the Port of Montreal, and other Canadian ports, should be wary that underlying their apparent efficiency is a union contract system that Madeleine Paquin, president and CEO of Logistec, believes could create problems due to its inflexibility and inability to create work practices in tune with a modern port.

The provisional settlement came after officials from the Indian Ports Association met union leaders in Mumbai and expressed the government’s willingness to discuss and resolve workers’ charter of demands.

Truckers and others are striking because Petrobras, the state-controlled oil company, has gradually increased diesel prices — by more than 40 percent — over six months, at the same time that the Temer administration has substantially hiked fuel taxes.

One shipping agent based in Santos, who represents a European carrier, said that the Port of Santos has been in “chaotic turmoil for most of this year,” but this week had been “the worst.”

The coalition of unions wants what it termed "three core job issues" addressed, which it says officials agreed to in August 2017.

Negotiators from the ILA and USMX will try to reach an agreement on local labor agreements, so that talks next month in Florida can focus on the six-year, coastwide deal.

The union has increased it's "all-day strikes" from one day to three days per week, and as a result, up to 4,000 containers are delayed daily, some for up to 21 days.

Shippers concerned that future worker shortages due to Baby Boomer retirements and other factors could impair the ability of ports to handle rising cargo volumes, and diminish their efficiency, might take comfort from efforts at the Port of New York and New Jersey to create a vibrant worker pipeline for the future.

The strike, owing to a pay and benefits dispute with Brazil's federal government that dates to November, has increased dwell times at the port to seven days, with some shippers facing up to 14-day delays.

A bill before the California Legislature that would make beneficial cargo owners share in liability for paying wages, fines, and damages to misclassified harbor truck drivers draws Teamsters support and California Trucking Association opposition.

The International Longshoremen's Association East Coast and Gulf Coast employer representatives will meet June 5 through 7 in hopes of wrapping up the master and local contracts in advance of the current agreement’s Sept. 30 expiration.

International Longshoremen's Association and United States Maritime Alliance committees report “significant progress” during two days of bargaining on a new master contract that BCOs hope will be settled well in advance of the Sept. 30 expiration.

Although the International Longshoremen's Association has not had a coastwide strike since 1977, beneficial cargo owners are anxious to have a new agreement in place.

Shippers were hit especially hard Thursday by the RF strike on the border of Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Argentina, its Mercosur trade bloc neighbors. There, 200 trucks have been stuck at the border at Ponta Porã, in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, since Wednesday morning.

NRF-led coalition tells ILA and USMX cargo loss is imminent if they do not resume contract negotiations soon.

The dispute, which has arisen annually during the past several years, comes as shippers, carriers, and ports prepare for the 2018 Great Lakes/St. Lawrence Seaway shipping season, which runs from late March through the end of the year.

Gothenburg's long-running labor dispute is having a devastating effect on the port, slashing its volume and eroding its competitiveness.

ILA and USMX officials had hoped to agree on a contract extension that would reassure the hundreds of shippers who will attend the JOC’s annual Trans-Pacific Maritime (TPM) conference March 4-7 in Long Beach, California.

The legislation is the latest event in the ongoing, bitter dispute between the commission and the New York Shipping Association and the International Longshoremen’s Association.

A closer look at contract extension talks for the US East and Gulf coasts suggests less cause for alarm.

The union is prepared to avoid bargaining until the current coastwide contract expires on Sept. 30, 2018.

New Jersey legislators are pushing ahead with a bill that would strip the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor of its policing responsibility in the Port of New York and New Jersey.

Hopes are are high among trade participants; shippers would be delighted if a long-term deal is struck, as it would support supply-chain certainty.

Local shipping sources in JNPT told JOC.com that some vessels have been stranded at berth or at anchorage.

Success at organizing superintendents at APL and Pasha terminals has International Longshore and Warehouse Union looking forward to another victory.

False logs are an "epidemic," and shippers are vulnerable, speakers tell the JOC Inland Distribution Conference. The latest federal data back them up.

Now that a West Coast longshore labor contract extension is in place through mid-2022, shippers are anxious for a similar deal to ensure continued labor peace on the East and Gulf coasts.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union-International Container Terminal Services, Inc. saga began in 2012.

International Longshoremen’s Association and United States Maritime Alliance officials have been exploring a long-term extension for more than two years.

A jury convicted a general foreman and member of the International Longshoremen’s Association at the Port of New York and New Jersey of fraudulently collecting a salary of nearly $500,000 while infrequently going to work.

Last summer’s contract extension by the ILWU and the PMA increased pressure for an agreement on the East and Gulf coasts.

BCOs will experience new dynamics that could affect cargo-handling at terminals where supervisors are organized by the ILWU.

Cargo-handling resumed and truck gates reopened at one of the largest container terminals in Southern California at the height of the peak-shipping season.