Tens of thousands of dockworkers reached a tentative agreement Wednesday on a new, six-year contract with the U.S. Maritime Alliance, which represents 14 major ports from Boston to Miami and along the Gulf Coast from Mobile, Alabama, to Houston.
Both sides say the tentative agreement will avoid a looming strike at midnight Jan. 15. “We are pleased to announce that ILA and USMX have reached a tentative agreement on a new six-year ILA-USMX Master Contract, subject to ratification, thus averting any work stoppage,’ the parties announced in a news release.
“This agreement protects current ILA jobs and establishes a framework for implementing technologies that will create more jobs while modernizing East and Gulf coasts ports — making them safer and more efficient, and creating the capacity they need to keep our supply chains strong.’
The primary sticking point in talks between the International Longshoremen’s Association and the Maritime Alliance was automation. ILA President Harold Daggett repeatedly promised dockworkers there would be no automation or semi-automated terminals. ‘I’m going to save everybody’s job when it comes to the ILA. … I’ll shut them down throughout the world.’
The Maritime Alliance has said it was not seeking to implement automation to replace workers.
“What we need is continued modernization that is essential to improve worker safety, increase efficiency in a way that protects and grows jobs, keeps supply chains strong, and increases capacity that will financially benefit American businesses and workers alike,’ it said in November.
The tentative agreement caps months of back-and-forth between the workers and the ports. In September, at least 14 ports across the East Coast shut down for days, stranding billions of dollars in goods. A strike could have exposed the U.S. economy to as much as $4.5 billion of impact per week, according to an estimate last year from J.P. Morgan.
The union says details of the agreement will not be released until rank-and-file workers are able to review it.