WEST COAST PORT CRISIS
Major Progress Made in Longshore Contract Negotiations
It was one more step forward in the drawn-out contract negotiations between West Coast longshore workers and their employers.
After a federal mediator was called in earlier this year to speed things along, both sides said they have resolved the sticky issue of how the chassis fleet is maintained and by whom. Chassis, the wheeled frames that help deliver cargo containers from the docks to warehouses and rail yards, have been one of the more volatile issues in the negotiations. For years, shipping lines provided chassis to deliver the cargo containers and they were maintained and repaired by longshore workers.
But last year, shipping lines got out of the chassis business and turned it over to four private leasing companies, leaving the issue of chassis maintenance up in the air.
“A tentative agreement was reached on the chassis topic, and we are hopeful that this will allow us to move toward conclusion of a full agreement in the near term,” wrote Wade Gates, a spokesman for the Pacific Maritime Association, which represents the shipping lines and terminal operators that employ the longshore workers.
The two sides already had resolved another difficult issue—healthcare.
Contract negotiations began in mid-May, but progress between the two sides negotiating in San Francisco has been slow to come.
On Jan. 5, the U.S. Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service announced it would send in Scot Beckenbaugh, a skilled mediator and the service’s deputy director, to get the two sides moving.
Contract talks between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association will establish a new six-year contract to replace the one that expired last July 1. The contract negotiations cover nearly 20,000 longshore workers at 29 West Coast ports.
Even though the chassis issue has been resolved, the PMA still complains that the union continues with work slowdowns at the West Coast ports—particularly at the Port of Long Beach and the Port of Los Angeles. On Jan. 27, there were 17 cargo-container vessels anchored beyond the port complex’s breakwater, which is a record.
