After nine months of often-contentious negotiations and two contract extensions, the International Longshoremen’s Association and United States Maritime Alliance struck a deal late Friday night, ensuring there will be no economy-crushing coastwide strike for at least the next six years.
Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service Director George H. Cohen made the announcement shortly before midnight.
“I am extremely pleased to announce that the parties have reached a tentative agreement for a comprehensive successor Master Agreement. The tentative agreement is subject to the ratification procedures of both parties and, as well, to agreements being achieved in a number of local union negotiations,” Cohen said.
“Those local negotiations are ongoing and will continue without interruption to any port operation.”
Cohen declined to disclose any details, citing his agency’s longstanding confidentiality policy. He did, however, indicate that “substantive” agreements have been reached.
Negotiations have been conducted under the auspices of the FMCS since September, when it became clear the parties would not come to an agreement by the contracts’ end that month.
Cohen praised both sides for “good faith negotiations in which the parties successfully accommodated strongly held competing positions because of their commitment to problem solving.
“Again, collective bargaining has proven its worth by avoiding a potential work stoppage that would have had a severe negative impact on the nation’s economy.”
According to the National Retail Federation, the continued threat of a coast-wide port shutdown has wreaked havoc on the supply chain for the past year as the nation’s retailers, manufacturers, farmers and others have had to continuously prepare for a supply chain disruption, implementing costly contingency plans to ensure their products reach market.
At Georgia Ports Authority, the second largest container port on the East Coast, executive director Curtis Foltz told his board last week that his staff has seen more than 6,000 containers a month diverted to the West Coast since October as a hedge against a possible strike.
That impact is minimal, however, compared to the damage a strike would have done — even in the short term.
Measured in its broadest terms, the total economic impact of Georgia’s deepwater ports is $66.9 billion annually, meaning a work stoppage of just one week would deliver a more than $1 billion blow to the state’s economy.
“We are obviously pleased with the news that the ILA and USMX have agreed on terms of a new six-year collective bargaining agreement,” Foltz said Saturday. “This will ensure that our mutual customers continue to receive the outstanding and reliable services that our ports are recognized for.
“I want to thank our local ILA leadership, in particular Mr. Willie Seymore for his efforts towards this successful conclusion,” he added. “We look forward to the various local agreements being concluded and a full contract ratification. The Authority will work closely with our customers who diverted business to the West Coast during this period of uncertainty to return their business and the associated jobs to our region.”
Seymore, president of ILA Local 1414, said he was satisfied with the new contract.
“We didn’t get everything we wanted, but we have an agreement we can definitely live with and that’s what compromise is all about,” he said Saturday afternoon, shortly after getting off the plane from New Jersey, where he spent the last week in the negotiations.
“I am proud to have been part of a process that tested the will and the strength of the ILA,” Seymore said. “We prevailed in a way that will help our work at the ports of Savannah and Brunswick.”
Seymore had nothing but praise for those involved in the negotiations, especially the federal mediators.
“They were true gentlemen and they did a great job of mediating two very strong energies,” he said.
“Now we can get back to providing GPA’s customers with the same excellent service they have come to expect here.”