ILWU Labor Motion Happens as Contract Negotiations Look Dangerous

Labor motion from West Coast dockworkers is wanting increasingly more prone to disrupt provide chains. In reality, native motion, together with a port safety guard strike authorization, have already taken place.

The potential of a rail strike pulled consideration away from the Worldwide Longshore & Warehouse Union’s (ILWU) contract negotiations with the Pacific Maritime Affiliation (PMA). On Thursday final week, a tentative contract settlement between the railroads and the 2 largest rail employee unions relieved the concern of U.S. provide chains shutting down on the next day, permitting focus to show again to the ILWU’s stalled contract talks. Issues aren’t totally resolved on the rails, however the scenario there has typically moved in a optimistic route whereas the scenario on the docks is trending in a unfavorable one.

Regarding State of affairs

Peter Tirschwell, Vice President, Maritime & Commerce, S&P International Market Intelligence, has not surprisingly been holding a detailed eye on the scenario on the docks, writing articles about what’s happening with the ILWU and their contract negotiations within the Journal of Commerce (JOC) and the Wall Avenue Journal (WSJ).

As I’ve executed in Common Cargo’s weblog, Tirschwell has warned of the provision chain disruption menace the ILWU poses at West Coast ports. Days earlier than the July 1st expiration of the ILWU’s grasp contract, Tirschwell wrote in a WSJ article:

An precise strike isn’t possible. Greater than half a century has handed because the final dockworker strike on the West Coast. More likely are native labor disruptions. There was no strike at West Coast ports in 2014 and 2015, when the contract was final up for negotiation (it was prolonged in 2019). However there have been almost six months of labor disruption, resulting in billions of {dollars} in losses for agricultural exporters. Native models of the ILWU disrupted particular person ports over native grievances they felt weren’t being addressed within the negotiations. Port staff’ most important tactic—which they’ve employed because the Nineteen Nineties—was to work “to the letter of the contract,” loading and shifting containers very slowly. It’s not doable to cease a dockworker from driving tools at a snail’s tempo, and it could severely disrupt cargo circulation.

These labor slowdowns weren’t simply pricey for agricultural exporters, whose produce rotted on the docks. Importers couldn’t get their items in time to get them on the cabinets for the vacation procuring season. Shippers actually haven’t forgotten in regards to the pricey port congestion ensuing from the 2014-15 contentious contract negotiations and diverted cargo this summer season to East and Gulf Coast ports in case a repeat occurs.

Union Jurisdiction & Automation

Initially, essentially the most talked about concern for making ILWU contract negotiations contentious was automation. Nevertheless, union jurisdictional points pertaining to the T5 terminal on the Port of Seattle has reportedly stored negotiations from even attending to the issue of automation, which ports must sustain with fashionable delivery volumes however the union views as an existential menace.

Pointing again to the 2008, the Union says a quid professional quo was reached the place the unions would enable the ports to automate if administration would help the ILWU in union jurisdiction issues. Possibly so. The ILWU was additionally nicely compensated in pay and advantages. However now, courtroom ruling on the union jurisdiction combat the ILWU has been having at T5 went in opposition to the union, and the ILWU is looking into query the ports’ proper to automate in any respect.

Contract-Associated Native ILWU Labor Motion

Amongst different native labor motion, Tirschwell reported within the JOC final week that dockworkers have been refusing to work at an automatic terminal:

In Los Angeles, dockworkers as of this week have been persevering with to refuse to work ships on the automated aspect of Pier 400…

He reported the union cited security considerations as the rationale for this motion. After all, when truckers picketed the Port of Oakland over AB 5 and dockworkers refused to cross the picket line, the union mentioned that was due to security considerations too. Dockworkers who refused to work then by no means talked about questions of safety after they instructed reporters how they have been standing with the truckers.

It’s superb how these unspecified security considerations all the time appear to coincide with different points that seem to encourage labor motion.

Along with the dockworkers refusing to work the automated aspect of Pier 400 in Los Angeles, Tirschwell studies:

In Tacoma, a Matson ship lately wasn’t labored attributable to a requirement by union locals for mechanics to be educated in CPR, sources mentioned. Sources mentioned each points have been instantly tied to the coastwide negotiations, indicating unrest is as soon as once more rising on the native degree.

With no contract in place, the ports can’t name in an arbitrator to resolve if the labor motion is authorized.

ILWU Native 26 Strike Menace

The member-authorized strike of port safety guards, related to the ILWU however separate from the grasp dockworker contract negotiations we’ve been speaking about, represents a critical menace to Port of Los Angeles operations. Tirschwell studies in one other JOC article:

West Coast terminal employers additionally remained on alert for a doable strike by ILWU Native 26, a safety guard native affiliated with the longshore union that voted on Sept. 1 to authorize a strike, though two sources mentioned they thought the prospect of a strike was comparatively low. If Native 26, which represents safety guards at most Los Angeles–Lengthy Seaside terminals and has been negotiating a brand new contract for 3 years, throws up picket strains exterior the terminals, it’s assumed the dockworkers is not going to cross them, instantly shutting down many of the busiest US gateway and triggering a significant new provide chain disaster.

ILWU Contract Negotiations Deadlock

Whereas a full-fledged ILWU strike remains to be thought of unlikely, a declaration of an deadlock that will step us nearer to such a crippling strike is changing into more and more possible. Tirschwell studies:

Sources near the negotiations instructed JOC.com that though no deadlock has been declared — a proper designation that would precipitate a strike, an choice the union has disavowed — no resolution has but emerged after weeks of dialogue centered on Seattle and the broader associated points. The extremely contentious jurisdictional problem that originated in 2018 at Seattle’s Terminal 5 (T5) has change into a coastwide contract problem. The longer the give-and-take over T5 drags on with out progress, the higher the chance that an precise deadlock may very well be declared, presumably as quickly as Sept. 19, sources say.

On the time of this writing, September nineteenth was yesterday. No information of an official deadlock has been introduced, however there has additionally been no signal of progress both.