The union representing 45,000 East Coast and Gulf Coast dockworkers and a bunch representing employers held a brand new spherical of contract talks this week however did not make important progress on the vital concern of automation, the 2 sides mentioned on Wednesday.
That divide have to be bridged earlier than Jan. 15 to keep away from a second port strike that will disrupt the nation’s circulate of products as importers and exporters put together for potential upheaval from President-elect Donald Trump’s threatened tariffs on a broad swath of products from China, Mexico and different international locations.
Leaders of the Worldwide Longshoremen’s Affiliation union are dogged foes of automation, saying it’s going to kill jobs.
Employers again automation and semi-automation, saying it’s essential to US port competitiveness and might enhance cargo volumes that underpin jobs. In the meantime, President Biden’s administration is worried in regards to the prospect of a brand new work stoppage subsequent yr, a senior official mentioned.
The union declined a request for remark however addressed the state of affairs in a Fb submit that was later eliminated, though not earlier than it was shared inside the delivery business.
“The ILA’s resolve remains strong not to surrender any ILA jobs,” the union mentioned within the posting, including that it reduce off talks after the employer group continued pushing automation and semi-automation language in its Grasp Contract proposals.
The ILA agreed to finish a three-day strike on Oct. 3 after it gained settlement for a 62% wage hike over six years with the USA Maritime Alliance employer group following important involvement by the White Home and different Biden administration officers.
The work stoppage was the primary large-scale strike at East and Gulf Coast ports in almost 50 years, briefly halting the circulate of about half the nation’s ocean delivery.
USMX and the union met for 2 days this week in an effort to achieve a brand new six-year contract forward of a Jan. 15 deadline.
“While we had positive progress on a number of issues, we were unable to make significant progress on our discussions that focused on a range of technology issues,” USMX mentioned.
The employer group mentioned it’s “not seeking technology that would eliminate jobs.”
It mentioned the union is “insisting on an agreement that would move our industry backward by restricting future use of technology that has existed in some of our ports for nearly two decades, making it impossible to evolve to meet the nation’s future supply chain demands.”
One state of affairs at concern is using driverless cranes that choose up containers from stacks on docks and transfer them to ready vehicles. Union employees in distant areas decrease the containers onto the chassis to make sure that they’re securely positioned, a supply aware of the talks instructed Reuters.
That sort of semi-automation has helped terminals enhance the variety of containers they’ll deal with, which helps jobs, that supply mentioned.
The tentative deal introduced final month would increase common union wages to about $63 an hour from $39 an hour over the lifetime of the contract. That’s contingent on the remainder of the problems being resolved.
