ILA longshoremen return to work
The New York Shipping Association said International Longshoremen’s Association members returned to work Wednesday evening after protests closed ports Tuesday and Wednesday.
Longshoremen worked ships Wednesday night, and Joseph Curto, NYSA president, told American Shipper all indications are that Thursday would be ” a normal work day” at the Port of New York and New Jersey's terminals.
The ILA issued a statement late Wednesday that it had “convinced the individual pickets to leave the various terminals in the port of New York and New Jersey.”
The union said it would meet with United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) and NYSA to discuss the decision by Fresh Del Monte Produce to relocate its operations to a non-ILA facility in Gloucester City, N.J., run by Holt Logistics. Del Monte’s decision to move to the Gloucester terminal from an ILA manned terminal sparked the protests that shut down terminals in New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia.
Meanwhile, Leo Holt, president of Holt Logistics, said ILA pickets at Packer Marine Terminal in Philadelphia dispersed at 1 p.m. Wednesday. Unlike Holt’s facility in Gloucester City that employs workers belonging to the Teamsters and other unions, Packer Avenue does employ ILA members.
Longshoremen in New York and Philadelphia refused to cross picket lines set up by some of the 200 ILA members who are losing their jobs in Camden, N.J.
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Curto said dockworkers in New York and New Jersey “will work into the weekend to address the cargo currently in the port and the cargo anticipated to arrive henceforth.”
He confirmed that “management and labor representatives will meet early next week” to discuss the issues that sparked the protests.
Curto said while the NYSA had not suffered losses because of the job action, individual steamship lines could seek recourse from the union, but he did not know if any would.
After reports that protesters might seek to shut terminals in New York and New Jersey down surfaced, the NYSA obtained an order from an arbitrator Monday that picketing would constitute secondary activity in violation of the National Labor Relations Act, but workers honored the picket lines, nevertheless, in defiance of a court order. ' Chris Dupin