ILWU

PMA members will temporarily suspend premium-pay weekend and holiday vessel operations on four upcoming dates

The Port of Oakland today released an update on seaport operations and the status of waterfront labor talks.

The Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) announced today that weekend vessel loading and unloading operations will be temporarily suspended this weekend, with yard, rail and gate operations continuing at terminal operators’ discretion.

Seeking to break the deadlock in stalled West Coast longshore negotiations, the Pacific Maritime Association has made an “all-in” contract offer that would significantly increase compensation to members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU).

The Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), representing employers at 29 ports, and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), which represents 20,000 dockworkers, have come to a tentative agreement on a key issue in ongoing contract negotiations.

Federal mediators will begin working with the Pacific Maritime Association and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union to ratify a new contract.

When the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) convenes a caucus in San Francisco next week, contract negotiations with the Pacific Maritime Association may finally draw to a close.

While the ongoing labor negotiations between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) ostensibly going from bad to worse, following the ILWU’s announcement late last week that it was halting negotiations from November 20 through November 30, a Congressional group last week penned a letter to PMA and ILWU leadership expressing concern over the state of the negotiations.

Three weeks after initiating a coordinated series of slowdowns that have mired the major West Coast ports of Tacoma, Seattle, Oakland, Los Angeles and Long Beach, the ILWU has pushed away from the bargaining table.

The Agriculture Transportation Coalition has asked the Administration to bring in a federal mediator to help resolve the negotiations, and if a strike or lockout occurs, the AgTC advocates the rarely-invoked Taft-Hartley Act.

A new threat to U.S. West Coast port productivity surfaced yesterday, as the Teamsters began organizing independent owner-operated truckers.

The PMA is asking the ILWU to agree to a temporary contract extension so that Beneficial Cargo Owners (BCOs), truck drivers, and other stakeholders may be spared ongoing hardship.

As contract negotiations resume today between the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), a war of words and allegations has escalated in the trade press.

Despite assurances that The International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU) has been negotiating in good faith for a new contract, the ports of Seattle and Tacoma are reporting labor “slowdowns” in recent weeks.

Retailers concerned by the lack of a West Coast longshoremen’s contract will continue to bring merchandise into the country at above-average levels this month but volume will drop from the record set in August, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released today by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates.