"Unionized dockworkers and employers at a swath of U.S. ports set their first bargaining since a recent strike for after a presidential election that could scramble the dynamics in negotiations.
The two sides said they would start talks next month toward a new six-year labor agreement covering U.S. East Coast and Gulf Coast ports.
A shipping industry official said the employers expect to meet union officials in mid-November. "We said it makes no sense to go into conversations without knowing what we're working with in terms of the U.S. government, which played such an active role to get us to this point," the official said.
The two sides are heading into the talks with the International Longshoremen's Association already having won a tentative deal of a 62% wage increase over six years. That agreement was reached Oct. 3 after the White House put pressure on port employers and some of the world's largest ocean shipping companies to raise their pay offer.
Biden administration officials pressed for employers to give ground as longshore workers stayed off the job for three days earlier this month, shutting down some of the country's main gateways for imports of food, vehicles, construction materials, furniture and clothes.
The wage boost, the latest big increase that unions have notched in the past couple of years at a range of transport and manufacturing companies, will sharply raise labor costs at ports. Shipping lines and cargo terminal operators hope to offset the wage boost with agreements in the coming negotiations on productivity improvements.
The employer group and the union extended the current contract through Jan. 15 to give time to negotiate thorny contract issues beyond wages, including the use of automation on the docks.
The increase would raise the base hourly rate for an ILA dockworker to $63 from $39.
Shipping industry officials believe if Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris wins the election they can point to the wage agreement and call on the administration to help wring concessions out of the union on matters such as automation, the official said. They said employers believe Republican former President Donald Trump wouldn't be as forceful in backing the union's positions, potentially giving employers and ocean carriers a stronger hand in negotiations that have a deadline five days ahead of the Jan. 20 inauguration for a new administration.
The Biden administration leaned heavily on ocean carriers before and during the three-day strike that shut down container-handling operations at ports from Maine to Texas. President Biden called out the "record profits" made by "foreign-owned carriers" during the Covid-19 pandemic and urged employers to agree to a "meaningful increase" in wages.
Top White House officials including the director of the National Economic Council and the secretary of transportation privately pressured the carriers and port employers to raise their wage offer in late-night and early-morning calls to their headquarters in Asia and Europe, according to people familiar with the White House actions.
The U.S. Maritime Alliance, which represents port employers, is controlled by some of the world's largest containership operators.
The companies are owned or influenced by some of the world's wealthiest families, such as the Saade family of France, which controls CMA CGM, and the Aponte family of Italy, which controls Switzerland-based Mediterranean Shipping.
The U.S. is one of the most important world markets for ocean shipping companies and the government has several points of leverage over the carriers. The U.S. government controls lucrative contracts for the Maritime Security Program in which ocean carriers, such as Maersk Line Ltd. USA, a subsidiary of Denmark-based A.P. Moller-Maersk, deliver military and civilian cargo for the Department of Defense.
The government can also influence regulations that interfere with carriers' ability to collect fees and to form shipping alliances. It also holds sway over carriers' ability to buy cargo-handling terminals at U.S. seaports.
The ILA, which represents tens of thousands of dockworkers at East Coast and Gulf Coast ports, had been demanding a 77% wage increase." [1]
1. Business News: Election Result Factors in Port Talks --- Longshore union and port employers set negotiations to resume next month. Berger, Paul. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 29 Oct 2024: B.3.
Komentarų nėra:
Rašyti komentarą