ILWU ends caucus without contract agreement

Contract negotiations between West Coast longshoremen and employers have entered month eight.    The International Longshore and Warehouse Union ended a longshore caucus of about 90 union representatives on Tuesday, but the union has still not reached an agreement with employers on a new contract despite seven months of negotiations.
   The Pacific Maritime Association, which represents employers, sent the union what several sources have said was a “comprehensive” proposal last week. After reviewing it for several days, on Monday the union responded with what ILWU spokesman Craig Merrilees characterized as a “robust counterproposal.”
   While the caucus had been scheduled months ago and was not specifically linked to the contract talks, there were high hopes by many shippers that an agreement might be hammered out by the time the caucus met and voted on.
   “If the agreements go back and forth, they are moving in the right direction,” said Merrilees.
   He expected the union and PMA to resume negotiations later this week.
   When an agreement is reached, the caucus will reconvene and vote on whether to send the contract to the union’s members for their approval.   Negotiations began May 12 on the contract that expired July 1.
   In a note to his members, Peter Friedmann, the executive director of the Agriculture Transportation Coalition said there was “no word on specifics, but some of our sources who have been on the inside of these longshore negotiations previously, say this is ‘feeling’ like real progress. Nonetheless, the union continues its slowdown at the docks.”
   Jonathan Gold, vice president of supply chain and customs policy at the National Retail Federation, said retailers are still experiencing delays in getting shipments out of West Coast container terminals.
   “Hopefully, they are in the endgame,” he said.
   Shipment delays persist even though there has been some reduction in the number of ships at anchorage, awaiting berths at the Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach. Those two ports handle about 40 percent of the nation’s container cargo.