Tuesday, November 18, 2014
PMA and ILWU ramp up contract talks
Contract talks for West Coast longshoremen between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association have intensified after cargo movement began to slowdown at the end of the holiday shipping season.
Negotiators met the weekend before Veteran’s Day, on Veteran’s Day itself, and into the night on Nov. 12, according to ILWU spokesman Craig Merrilees, who said that kind of schedule is rare.
Since the dockworkers have been working without a contract since July 1, crews have slowed container handling by half in Seattle and Tacoma, walked out mid-shift in Oakland and been unavailable to run cranes in Los Angeles and Long Beach, according to PMA spokesman Wade Gates.
"They’re actually bargaining and making progress," said Jim Tessier, a former official of the maritime association who now works as a labor consultant. "They both lose in a strike or a lockout, and they know it."
The two sides have been in contract talks since May, with no public rancor, but that stopped on Oct. 31 when slowdowns started at the ports of Seattle and Tacoma.
The PMA released a statement accusing workers of reneging on an agreement not to undermine productivity at the ports, while the union said that was a "bald-faced lie," since there was no such agreement.
The job slowdowns and expressions of indignation actually may indicate that the two parties are closing in on an agreement rather than a breakdown in talks, said Nelson Lichtenstein, director of the Center for the Study of Work, Labor and Democracy at the University of California at Santa Barbara.
"These disruptions are designed to get a contract," he said. "The union has been a good egg here, letting it go on beyond the deadline, and there’s been no incentive for the PMA to sign a contract."
For more of the Bloomberg story: www.bloomberg.com
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