ILA Agrees to Contract Deal for East Coast Ports, Averting Strike
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Just days ahead of a widely-expected walkout, the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) announced that it has reached a deal for a master contract with port terminals on the U.S. East Coast, resolving deep-seated disagreements over the future of port automation.<\/p>\n
The contract builds on a previous interim agreement on wages, and it averts a strike action that most shippers, carriers and forwarders had considered a near-certainty until Wednesday’s announcement. In anticipation of disruption, many ocean carriers had already announced new U.S. East Coast\u00a0congestion fees effective on the date of the negotiating deadline, January 15.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“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 on January 15, 2025,” the union and the port employers’ association said in a joint statement. “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.”<\/p>\n
The new contract is subject to ratifaction by the union’s rank-and-file membership.\u00a0The two sides described it as a “win-win agreement,” a significant departure from the language used to describe the negotiations over the past few months. \u00a0<\/p>\n
The new master contract will last six years, and the ILA agreed to keep working under the terms of the previous contract until the new deal is ratified. Details of the tentative agreement will not be released to the public just yet in order to allow both sides’ members time to review the contract.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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