Potential Coast-Wide Port Strike Inches Closer

The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) has scheduled Wage Scale Committee Meetings for earlier next month in New Jersey to review demands to employers in its ongoing contract negotiations. However, union leadership said the gatherings will also serve as a preparation for a potential coast-wide strike if a new agreement is not reached by the September 30th deadline.

“We are meeting to discuss our ILA demands with our ILA Wage Scale Committee delegates for the next contract we sign with USMX,” said ILA President Harold J. Daggett. “But with less than 30 days to go before the end of our current Master Contract when these meetings are held, we must prepare our locals and our ILA membership for a strike on October 1, 2024. Two generations of ILA members have come into the industry since our last strike in 1977 — more than four and a half decades ago.”

The ILA has scheduled the intensive meetings to take place on September 4th and 5th to finalize contract demands and instruct locals on strike strategies in anticipation of a potential strike in early October.

“My membership is 100 percent behind the ILA leadership team, and they know we want to deliver the best contract for them,” Daggett added. “If that means we have to go out on strike October 1st, they are ready to ‘hit the streets’ if our demands are not met.”

In addition to announcing the Wage Scale Meetings, the ILA says it has notified employer groups that the current agreement expiring on September 30, 2024, would not be extended, complying with the “60-Day Notice” requirement under Section 8 of the Labor-Management Act of 1947.

Daggett warned last month that a strike at Atlantic and Gulf Coast ports was becoming increasingly likely due to slow contract negotiations with USMX, rejecting contract extensions and outside interference from the Biden Administration or the Department of Labor. Any strike action would come two months ahead of the U.S. presidential election.

The USMX-ILA Master Contract, last ratified in September 2018, governs approximately 14,500 port workers on the U.S. East and Gulf Coasts and is set to expire at the end of September. The ILA recently canceled scheduled negotiations with USMX in early June after discovering that APM Terminals and Maersk Line were using an Auto Gate system that processes trucks autonomously, bypassing ILA labor. The ILA stated had stated that it would not meet with USMX until the Auto Gate issue is resolved.

The union said it was also awaiting results from an audit on jobs created by new technology, a report they have been expecting for almost two contract periods. Concerns have been raised over the increasing number of IT personnel on marine terminals, with the ILA accusing APM and Maersk’s IT departments in Charlotte, North Carolina, of encroaching on their jurisdiction.

The last coast-wide strike of the ILA took place in 1977.

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