PMA members approve tentative longshore labor contract

The Pacific Maritime Association voted to approve the deal in advance of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union member ratification vote Friday.    The Pacific Maritime Association announced Wednesday its members have voted overwhelmingly to ratify a new five-year labor contract with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. The contract, if ratified by the ILWU, is retroactive to July 1, 2014 and runs through June 30, 2019. PMA represents 72 employers, including cargo carriers, terminal operators and stevedores.
   The ILWU plans to tally votes on the ratification of the tentative contract by its members Friday, May 22, more than a year after negotiations on the new pact began on May 12, 2014.
   A vote of approval was recommended to members on April 3 after 90 delegates to the ILWU’s Coast Longshore Caucus spent a week reviewing the proposed agreement line-by-line. Seventy-eight percent of the caucus members recommended approval of the labor deal.
   The contract was then discussed at union locals and secret ratification ballots were held at each local. Those votes will be tallied tomorrow.
   PMA said a new arbitration system in the contract will improve “stability, capacity growth and productivity. This is especially important given the increasingly competitive environment West Coast ports face now and into the future from a variety of factors, including the long-anticipated opening of the expanded Panama Canal.”
   PMA also said health care changes maintained in the contract will foster greater efficiency, cost containment and fraud prevention at the 29 West Coast Ports served by the ILWU.
   Jim McKenna, PMA’s president and chief executive officer, called disruptions at West Coast ports that occurred during the negotiations “regrettable.”
   “We look forward to building upon the incredible advantages West Coast ports offer and winning back the trust and confidence of the shipping community,” McKenna said in a statement. “This contract provides important tools to accomplish that.”