In the past, concerns about the displacement and replacement of workers by robotics had led the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), a union representing mainly dockers on the west coast of the United States, to enter into bitterly contested negotiations with the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) against any form of automation. Over time, however, concessions have been made to carefully introduce automation into North America`s busiest ports. The intention to build a fourth automated terminal at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach has experts fearing that the upcoming renegotiation of the ILWU-PMA treaty in mid-2022 will be the most controversial to date. The two parties are expected to begin contract negotiations in the spring. In 2002, jawing began months before the two sides even sat down to negotiate. The biggest problem in these negotiations has been the computerization of port operations, which has affected both navy officials and other port employees. The PMA and ILWU continued to go back and forth, both to the table and to the press, until the PMA locked up the dockers for 10 days. President George W. Bush invoked the Taft-Hartley Act, the ports were reopened, and negotiations lasted until December 2002, when a new treaty was signed. [1] To avoid the crippling effects of work slowdowns and work stoppages that occurred during the 2014-2015 negotiations, the ILWU approved after a vote in which every registered coastal worker on the West Coast had the opportunity to submit a three-year contract extension until July 2022. [8] Randy James, spokesperson for the Pacific Maritime Association, a broker for West Coast marine carriers and terminal operators, recently said, “ILWU coastal workers and West Coast ports have worked together to address significant challenges and move record volumes of cargo during the pandemic. As supply chain congestion is expected to continue until next year, we hope that this collaboration can extend to the contract negotiations between the PMA and the ILWU.
The protracted and controversial negotiations on the West Coast, which began in May 2014 and only resulted in an interim settlement after the Obama administration intervened in February 2015, got bogged down in jurisdictional and arbitration issues. Contract negotiations in 2014-2015 resulted in crippling slowdowns in the ILWU`s work and a response from the AMP that included stopping lucrative night and weekend work for longshoremen. West Coast ports experienced a collapse in traffic for nearly four months. Exporters, especially agricultural exporters who have to ship their perishable goods through the nearest port, have suffered from the loss of business, some of which has been lost indefinitely. [6] Despite an early start – PMA and ILWU sat down at the table in mid-March 2008 – negotiators again missed the contract deadline. While there was no lockout this time around, slowdowns were reported until a new deal was reached in August. [1] In 2019, the ILWU agreed to extend the existing contract by three years; Union members received a wage increase in return. ILWU President Willie Adams said in a statement this week: “The employer is now requesting an extension of this extension.
We have been waiting for seven years to solve problems that are important for dockers. IlWU`s contract negotiations were generally more difficult, with a focus on automation and technology – meaning they usually want to avoid them as it would result in fewer employees. Ila contract negotiations have generally been more civilized. Recently, however, the ILA filed a $200 million lawsuit against management and a freight forwarder for using non-unionized employees at a new terminal in South Carolina. The ILA is currently working in a hybrid model in which non-unionized workers can be used for typical union positions. The trial is an uncomfortable harbinger of possible negotiations in 2022. The previous ILWU contract was under negotiation in 2014 (extension agreed in 2017). The fuel element in 2022 is that despite the contractual language that enables automation and the fact that three terminals have implemented automation since 2008, the ILWU increasingly views automation as an existential threat and microcosm of robotics` greatest threat, displacing human labor. This is a significant change from previous years, when they accepted the terminals` right to automation in exchange for various concessions, including a lifetime income for each docker whose job is eliminated by automation.
[9] The treaty, which was concluded on the 30th. The month of May, after a nightly bargaining meeting and a few hours after the start of an employer lockout, must now be adopted by the BCMEA Board of Directors at a meeting today to take effect. Longshoremen are the workers who co-load and unload ships for our imports and export-related labour. There are two federations representing each of the unions – the IWLU and the ILA. The ILWU is the International Longshore & Warehouse Union and represents workers in Seattle/Tacoma in Southern California. Ila is the International Longshoremen`s Association and represents workers from Eastern Canada to the Great Lakes, the entire Atlantic coast, the Gulf Coast and Puerto Rico. Both employment contracts expire on 1 July 2022. In the past, they were staggered in terms of expiration dates. The proposed contract includes nearly 7,000 dockers employed in Vancouver, Prince Rupert and other ports. BCMEA, the organization that negotiates employment contracts for B.C.
ports, told ILWU Canada today that it plans to lock out ILWU Canada members starting Thursday. .