U.S. port workers set to strike as talks stall
Dock workers on the U.S. East and Gulf Coasts are set to strike on December 30, 2012 after talks between the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) and the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) broke down on Tuesday, Ship & Bunker reports.
Both parties blame the other for failing to agree a new extension for talks, which are nearing the end of a 90 day extension agreed in September averting a strike on September 30, 2012.
A key issue in the current impasse is over container royalty payments to ILA workers.
USMX says it wants to cap but not eliminate the per-container payments to workers and ILA says it is the one key issue it considers untouchable.
ILA, representing some 14,500 jobs, says it had offered to extend the talks deadline through the end of January 2013 providing USMX takes the container royalty issue off the table, but that USMX had declined to do so.
USMX, representing employers of the East and Gulf Coast longshore industry, says that it had agreed to the talks extension recommended by the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) but that it was the ILA who had rejected it by refusing to discuss any changes to the status quo on the container royalty issue.
"USMX seems intent on gutting a provision of our Master Contract that ILA members fought and sacrificed for years to achieve," said ILA President Harold J. Daggett.
"We have repeatedly asked them to leave this item alone - it was a hard won gain by ILA members and a wage supplement achieved through hard fought negotiations."
USMX chairman and CEO James A. Capo said "its members are disappointed with the breakdown of negotiations and the inflexible stance that the union's leaders have maintained over the nine-month course of these talks."
ILA members have voted to strike once the current talks extension expires on December 29, 2012.
Another strike on the U.S. West Coast ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach ended early this month after workers were off the job for eight days.