Ports of Tacoma and Seattle see slowdown amid labor contract disputes
The ports of Seattle and Tacoma continue to see significant slowdowns as a labor dispute between dockworkers and operators negotiating a union contract enters its second week.
The Pacific Maritime Association, an organization that negotiates labor contracts on behalf of port operators, reported the slowdowns in a statement Friday, and said they were “a result of targeted work actions” by the union, International Longshore and Warehouse Union. It also reported that operations in other West Coast ports have improved.
As a result of the slowdown, according to PMA, ships are sitting idle without being able to move cargo and causing a backlog of incoming vessels.
The ILWU, representing 22,000 dockworkers, declined to comment.
Since June 2, dockworkers at ports along the West Coast, including two of the country’s largest and most important hubs in Los Angeles and Long Beach, Calif., have slowed operations.
The Northwest Seaport Alliance, an umbrella organization for Seattle and Tacoma ports, said in a statement Friday the outcome of the contract negotiations affects the region’s status as a gateway of Washington exports to Asia.
“We are tracking operations closely and remain in contact with terminal operators, labor, cargo owners, and other supply chain stakeholders,” the Seaport Alliance said in a statement, declining to specify details of the operations’ slowdown.
Advertising
PMA claimed in a tweet Friday that the union’s “repeated disruptive work actions at strategic ports along the West Coast are increasingly causing companies to divert cargo.”
The labor dispute comes from ILWU claiming port operators reported record profits during the pandemic — up to $510 billion — that did not trickle down to dockworkers.
Tacoma and Seattle ports support more than 58,000 jobs in the region. The dockworkers’ contract covering 29 hubs in the West Coast expired in July, and since May 2022 ILWU and operators have been working on finalizing a contract.
In what could potentially cause supply-chain problems for the U.S. economy, retail and manufacturing groups have urged the White House to intervene in order to avoid a backlog that could hurt business and jobs. The federal government intervened when rail workers threatened to go on strike without a contract in November.
Last month, Democratic U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Seattle praised the Biden administration and the Department of Labor for monitoring the contract negotiations, “encouraging good faith bargaining and respecting the effectiveness of and right to collective bargain.”
“Throughout the pandemic, as our economy nearly came to a halt, our ports and the workers who run them kept our city, our state and our country moving,” Jayapal said.
Source: The Seattle Times
