News / East coast port talks resume, with automation and jobs still the sticking points

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Negotiations between the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and the United States Maritime Employers (USMX) will resume today, but a weekend ‘pre-meeting’ indicated it won’t be plain sailing.  

CNBC reported yesterday that the parties involved in the US east and Gulf coast port negotiations today held a “secret meeting” on Sunday “to help the dockworkers’ union and ports ownership find common ground on the heated issue of automation and semi-automation”. 

It reported a document produced from the eight-hour meeting showed an ILA demand to reserve the right to add human roles to accompany automation technologies. 

However, the article also quoted a USMX member as saying if new port technology must be complemented by union workers, then the tentative 62% wage increase the employers offered in October to end the first strike “should be off the table”.  

“Keeping automation at status quo arguably eliminates the ability to pay for the increase, so this is part of the internal discussion and will be part of the carriers’ consideration on whether to accept the deal,” the USMX member said. 

If a mutual agreement cannot be reached on “Operator Assisted Technology”, the subject is passed to a technology committee, comprising a co-chairman and five members from each side, as well as ILU chief Harold Daggett and his two sons, Dennis and John, according to the document seen by CNBC. 

It reported that while the personnel additions tied to new technology would be subject to local union chapter bargaining, final approval would come from the ILA’s national office. 

“All of these decisions are controlled by the Daggetts in the end,” a terminal operator told CNBC. 

“This contract continues to increase Daggett’s leverage in the union by deciding how many people get hired and which one of those lucky enough to be hired gets the biggest pay-cheque.” 

Another terminal operator with direct knowledge of the discussions told gCaptain: “Harold Daggett would like to add at least one dedicated person for each automated RTG [rubber-tyred gantry crane] at these terminals, even though there is no business need or safety or efficiency gain.” 

Meanwhile, Seko Logistics predicted that, in the event of a strike, larger ports would likely require an additional one to two weeks for full recovery. 

“Major gateway ports such as New York/New Jersey and Savannah face unique challenges due to their operational complexity and cargo volumes… This extended timeline stems from their intricate networks of terminals, carriers and inland connections,” it said. 

“Ports with significant rail dependencies are particularly vulnerable to prolonged recovery periods, as the ripple effects of port closures cascade through the inland transportation network,” it added.  

According to Seko, major ports will accumulate backlogs of some 25,000 to 30,000 teu, leading to a recovery period of seven-to-eight days for each day of shutdown.  

The current master contract between the parties at the ports expires on 15 January – an eight-day countdown to an increasingly-likely US East and Gulf coast strike. 

US importers have been urged to clear cargo before this deadline to avoid detention and demurrage charges, or additional fees linked to port congestion and delays.