Negotiations on a new longshore union contract covering East and Gulf Coast ports will resume just days before the current contract extension is set to expire.
Bargaining between the International Longshoremen’s Association and port employers represented by the United States Maritime Alliance are scheduled to resume Jan. 7, little more than a week before the current contract extension expires Jan. 15, according to sources who spoke to FreightWaves on the condition of anonymity.
The decision to resume negotiations was unexpected and came together quickly, said one individual close to the negotiations, adding that the sides had been talking informally for some time.
“They [the ILA and USMX] have been working informally, as you do in this situation,” said another source, who confirmed that negotiations would resume “within the next two weeks. They are coming up on a deadline.”
The resumption of bargaining comes just days after liner operators including Hapag-Lloyd announced container surcharges due to take effect in the event of a strike, and several weeks after President-elect Donald Trump backed the union following a meeting with ILA President Harold Daggett and his son, Executive Vice President Dennis Daggett, at his residence in Florida.
“Let’s hope the parties can actually get a deal. If not, they must do another extension to avoid a strike!” said Jonathan Gold, vice president, supply chain and customs policy at the National Retail Federation, in a post on X.
Absent an agreement on a new contract, it is also possible the sides could again extend the current contract.
There have been no formal negotiations since early November when the ILA broke off talks, saying employers were trying to force automated container handling technology into a new contract in a bid to eliminate union jobs.
The USMX responded by saying that semiautomated cranes were desperately needed on the docks to improve efficiency and make U.S. ports globally competitive. The employers said the resulting increased container volumes would actually help create more union jobs.
Trade groups for months have been calling on the sides to return to negotiations even as providers of logistics services prepared for the worst, after a fraught year that included attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and tariffs threatened by Trump that could realign global supply chains.
Those talks followed a three-day strike by 45,000 ILA workers in early October that shut down container handling and vehicle unloading at dozens of ports on the Eastern Seaboard and Gulf region. Officials from the Biden administration helped broker an end to the strike, with the sides agreeing to a 62% pay raise over a new six-year master contract and current contract extension while resuming negotiations.
No federal officials are involved in the current talks, the source said.
The ILA and USMX did not immediately return emails and calls seeking comment.
This article was corrected Jan. 2 to state the ILA agreed to a pay raise of 62%.
Find more articles by Stuart Chirls here.
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