INTERNATIONAL MARITIME
18 THE JOURNAL OF COMMERCE www.joc.com AUGUST 21.2017
The West Coast's share of Asian imports
fell to 66.8 percent in 2016 from 78.4 percent
in 2005, according to PIERS, a sister prod-
uct of The Journal of Commerce within IHS
Markit. The trend continued in the first half
of this year, when the West Coast's share of
Asian imports slipped to 65.7 percent from
67.2 percent in the first half of 2016.
Combined East and Gulf coast import
volumes from Asia during the first half
of 2017 rose 9.2 percent year over year to
2.5 million TEU, compared with a 1.9 per-
cent increase in West Coast volume.
The ILA hasn't had a coastwide work
stoppage since 1977, but came close during its
2012-2013 negotiations, which were settled
after two extensions, repeated strike threats,
and crucial help from federal mediators.
Things have been quiet on the ILA bar-
gaining front since last spring, when the
union
held informal pre-negotiation meet-
ings
with USMX officials to allow local
officials to sound off about contract proposals.
Several union and management officials
told The Journal of Commerce that they have
been waiting to see how events played out on
the West Coast before plunging into coast-
wide bargaining on the East and Gulf coasts.
In early 2015, it appeared the ILA and
USMX might reach a deal on a new or
extended contract before their West Coast
counterparts. After agreeing to explore
early negotiations, ILA and USMX officials
discussed the possibility of a multiyear
extension to 2025.
However, momentum for a long-term
agreement stalled amid questions surround-
ing medical costs, automation, jurisdiction,
and other issues. More recently, the two sides
have spoken in terms of a more traditional con-
tract length of perhaps three years.
The ILA's bargaining process is more
complex than that of the ILWU. The West
Coast encompasses fewer ports and has
a single coastwide contract. The ILA and
USMX have a Maine-to-Texas master con-
tract, and supplementary local and regional
contracts covering their more diverse ports.
The master contract defines the scope
of work and includes container and roll-
on, roll-off cargo wages; medical benefits;
carrier-paid container royalties; and other
coastwide issues. Local contracts cover pen-
sions, work rules, and other port-specific
issues. Wages for breakbulk and bulk cargo
handling also are negotiated locally, and
vary within and among ports.
Traditionally, the master contract has
been negotiated before local agreements.
This time, however, ILA President Harold
Daggett has insisted that local bargaining be
conducted first, in order to preserve union
leverage in local bargaining. The change
resulted from a Baltimore arbitrator's 2013
ruling that after the master contract takes
effect, its no-strike clause can't be nullified
by a dispute over local issues.
Local negotiations are reported to be
progressing in most ports, but they've been
slow to develop in the Port of New York and
New Jersey. The East Coast's largest port
was at the center of the 2012-2013 negotia-
tions, when ocean carriers in USMX refused
to sign off on a master agreement until
they had secured promises of productivity
improvements in New York-New Jersey's
local agreement.
Some of the New York-New Jersey issues
that were part of the last negotiations will
carry over into the next round of talks. The
ILA and the New York Shipping Associa-
tion (NYSA) still haven't implemented the
current contract's promised "relief gangs,"
or second shifts, that would replace the cur-
rent system of open-ended shifts requiring
excess staffing and extensive overtime.
ILA hiring in New York-New Jersey is
overseen by the Waterfront Commission of
New York Harbor, a crime watchdog agency
that the union and employers have accused
of micromanagement. The commission says
it is fulfilling its mission to fight organized
crime and ensure fair hiring.
Last spring, a brief kerfuffle ensued after
several ILA officials proposed a one-day
coastwide work stoppage and Washington
march to protest "government interfer-
ence" by the Waterfront Commission and
by
state-owned South Atlantic ports that
employ non-union state workers for some
terminal jobs.
The proposed work stoppage was called
off after Daggett urged dockworkers to heed
their contract's no-strike clause and stay on
the job while ILA leaders continue to press
the union's claims to jurisdiction at ports.
Daggett has said that automation is
likely to be the top issue in the next master
contract negotiations. Although few East
and Gulf coast container terminals have the
volume needed to justify full automation,
several have implemented automated gates
controlled by ILA clerks working in office-
like settings instead of in truck lanes. The
ILA-USMX master contract allows employ-
ers to introduce automation on six months'
notice, but permits the union to negotiate
the impact on jobs.
Other issues are expected to include
jurisdiction over chassis maintenance and
repair, and monetary issues including con-
tainer royalties, the per-ton fees paid by
carriers to support benefit programs, and
annual payouts to dockworkers. At last
spring's pre-negotiation meetings, union
officials in several ports floated the idea of
diverting a share of royalties to a fund that
would shore up their ports' underfunded
pensions. JOC
Contact Joseph Bonney at
joseph.bonney@ihsmarkit.com and
follow him on Twitter: @JosephBonney.
Daggett has said that automation is
likely to be the top issue in the next
master contract negotiations.
