Contract
Definition: A written or spoken agreement, especially one concerning employment, sales, or tenancy, that is intended to be enforceable by law
Agreement Nears in West Coast Dockworker Contract Talks
- by James Nash
- 10.48 PM
- January 27, 2015
- The Pacific Maritime Association, the bargaining agent for shippers and terminal operators, and the 20,000-member International Longshore and Warehouse Union reached tentative agreement on maintaining truck chassis at the 29 West Coast ports, port authorities said Tuesday in an e-mailed statement. Cargo has piled up at the ports in part because there aren’t enough functioning truck chassis to drive off containers after they’re unloaded.
That progress signals that a full contract agreement may be at hand, almost seven months after the dockworkers’ contract expired, said Wade Gates, spokesman for the maritime association.
“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,” Gates said in an e-mail. “However, the slowdowns continue at the ports, as they have for months.”
Backups, DelaysThe West Coast ports have experienced backups and delays as unionized workers slowed their productivity and truck chassis languished. Cargo entering and exiting the 29 West Coast ports accounts for about 12.5 percent of U.S. gross domestic product, according to a Pacific Maritime Association report last year. A strike or lockout could cost the economy as much as $2 billion a day, the association said, citing losses of as much as $1 billion a day from a 10-day lockout after talks broke down in 2002.
Craig Merrilees, spokesman for the longshore union, declined to comment.
Negotiations between the two sides have been overseen by a federal mediator since earlier this month. In August, the two sides announced a deal on health-care costs, without disclosing details. Since then, they have traded accusations about who’s responsible for congestion at the 29 ports from San Diego to Bellingham, Washington, without reporting progress in the talks.
At 7 a.m., 19 ships including 17 container vessels were awaiting berths in San Pedro Bay, which is shared by the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports, the two busiest in the U.S. by cargo volume, according to the Marine Exchange of Southern California. That’s up from as few as five ships during a holiday lull a month ago.
“The faster the two sides in the West Coast port labor contract negotiations can reach a just, long-term agreement, the sooner our system of ports can get back to ensuring the efficient delivery of goods, jobs, international competitiveness and overall prosperity that our nation has come to depend upon,” Kurt Nagle, president of the American Association of Port Authorities, said in an e-mailed statement.
West Coast Dockworker made an agreement with Pacific Maritime Association for maintaining truck chassis at the 29 West Coast ports