West Coast ports reach union contract, ending year-long labor dispute
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The union representing dock workers at 29 West Coast ports has reached a tentative labor contract after more than a year of negotiations, according to a joint statement published late Wednesday by the union and port managers. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight If both parties ratify the agreement, it will end a bitter labor dispute that had temporarily shuttered some of North America’s most important ports of entry. Details of the contract were not immediately disclosed.
The Pacific Maritime Association, which represents port owners, has accused the union of slowing down commerce through coordinated walkouts. And both sides repeatedly put out statements criticizing one another during negotiations over issues like automation and pay, even though they were ostensibly operating under a media blackout.
The dispute did not develop into a strike, but it came close: Canadian dockworkers did vote to authorize one over the weekend.
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“We are pleased to have reached an agreement that recognizes the heroic efforts and personal sacrifices of the [International Longshore and Warehouse Union] workforce in keeping our ports operating,” said Pacific Maritime Association President James McKenna and ILWU President Willie Adams in a joint statement. “We are also pleased to turn our full attention back to the operation of the West Coast Ports.”
The West Coast is key for the nation’s trade, with the ports at Los Angeles, Long Beach, Oakland and Seattle serving as critical gateways for container ships bringing imports from Asia. They collectively process hundreds of billions of dollars in cargo each year for products such as agricultural goods, manufacturing components and consumer electronics.
Business groups, including the National Retail Federation, have called those supply lines “crucial” to their operations as they urged the White House to broker a deal.
Pay and automation concerns
The biggest long-standing flash point for the union and port management concerned automation, namely, the extent to which port managers can bring in machinery to do jobs currently performed by longshoremen.
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But the subject of pay more recently became an unexpected sticking point, according to three people briefed on the negotiations who were not authorized to discuss the proceedings.
Workers wanted the new contract to include retroactive pay provisions to compensate them for the time they worked without a contract, the people said. At one point, a draft proposal leaked to union members seemed to imply that provision had been dropped, leading to sporadic walkouts in Oakland and elsewhere. It remains unclear whether the tentative agreement includes retroactive pay.
For its part, the Biden administration became closely involved in mediating the dispute as it sought to head off further possible disruptions to commerce. It dispatched Labor Secretary Julie Su to help reach a deal, leading to near-daily conversations with negotiators, people close to the negotiations said.
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Su “used her deep experience and judgment to keep the parties talking, working with them to reach an agreement after a long and sometimes acrimonious negotiation,” President Biden said in a statement Thursday. “Above all I congratulate the port workers, who have served heroically through the pandemic and the countless challenges it brought, and will finally get the pay, benefits, and quality of life they deserve.”
It is not the first high-profile labor dispute that has drawn in the White House. Last year, Biden became personally involved in mediating a railway dispute along with Marty Walsh, his previous labor secretary.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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Source: The Washington Post
