East Coast port employers, longshore union to resume contract negotiations

USMX, ILA face Jan. 15 deadline to reach new agreement

(Photo: Jim Allen/FreightWaves)

The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and employers represented by the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) in a joint announcement Friday said they will resume discussions on a new master contract in November.

The union earlier this month sent 45,000 members to picket lines during a three-day strike that shut down container and vehicle handling at 36 East and Gulf Coast ports.

The strike ended when Biden administration officials helped broker an extension of the previous master contract until Jan. 15, 2025. The sides then reached agreement on a 62% pay raise over the six years of a new pact, contingent on bargaining of other issues including the deployment of automation in port operations.

The statement said negotiators will meet in New Jersey, where they will look to agree on terms for a new Master Contract Proposal that can be presented to the full ILA Wage Scale Committee for approval, and later, to ILA longshore workers for ratification.

“The ILA and USMX welcome the opportunity to return to the bargaining table and get a new agreement in place as soon as possible,” they said.

The sides added they will not discuss details of negotiations with the media prior to these meetings.

Find more articles by Stuart Chirls here.

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Stuart Chirls

Stuart Chirls is a journalist who has covered the full breadth of railroads, intermodal, container shipping, ports, supply chain and logistics for Railway Age, the Journal of Commerce and IANA. He has also staffed at S&P, McGraw-Hill, United Business Media, Advance Media, Tribune Co., The New York Times Co., and worked in supply chain with BASF, the world's largest chemical producer. Reach him at stuartchirls@firecrown.com.