It’s been more than nine months since talks began to hammer out a new contract between West Coast longshore workers and employers.
And the usually reticent sides issued a rare joint statement late last week that said talks are continuing — but didn’t add much else.
“The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) announced that they continue to negotiate,” the joint statement said, “and remain hopeful of reaching a deal soon.”
Both sides have stuck closely to an agreement made when talks began to remain mum on how the negotiations were progressing and what was being discussed.
A snag was reportedly hit in October over a jurisdictional dispute at a terminal in the Port of Seattle that temporarily stalled talks.
A Feb 10 article in the Journal of Commerce, a trade publication, said negotiations only resumed that week after parties agreed to temporarily set aside the controversial jurisdictional issue that “has kept talks at a standstill for nine months.”
The journal, citing several anonymous sources “close to the negotiations,” reported that the resumed negotiations focused on terminal automation, health and safety, and wages, “issues that have received little attention since the coastwise contract negotiations began last May 10.”
But officially, neither the ILWU or PMA, the two negotiating parties, are commenting on the process, abiding by the silence agreement signed before talks began.
“We don’t have any additional info or comment beyond what’s in the joint release,” ILWU spokesperson Jennifer Sargent Bokaie said in a Friday, Feb. 24, email.
A PMA spokesperson, likewise, said, that organization had nothing to add beyond the Thursday, Feb. 23, joint statement.
Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka, for his part, said during his monthly news briefing last week that he thinks an agreement may come in March or this spring — though he stressed he had no specific knowledge on the matter.
Following the record cargo volumes that lasted for 25 months, traffic — and business overall — has dropped considerably at the ports of LA and Long Beach. That’s partily because of a shift to send more cargo through the Gulf and East Coast ports amid wariness that the longer-than-expected talks could spell trouble and, with it, work disruption in the San Pedro Bay Complex.
But both parties have signed — and have so far abided by — agreements in which they pledged no slowdowns, lockouts or strikes during the collective bargaining talks, Seroka said.
“There have been no disruptions to date,” Seroka said.
But the drop-off in cargo since the pandemic surge subsided, coupled with skittish importers looking for alternative ports, has impacted workers at terminals that, Seroka said, now operate only at 75% capacity. That means fewer shifts for longshore workers who have families to support and bills to pay.
Seroka, who said he’s crisscrossing the nation to get business to return to POLA. Seroka is also trying to quell the “trepidation” among importers wary that there isn’t yet a new contract, he said, adding he wants to ensure “they understand what we have here.”
“Cargo is moving,” Seroka said. “The ILWU has not gone on strike since the early 1970s. The folks here want to do the work.”