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New Jersey’s ports — among the busiest in the U.S. — face a pivotal moment, requiring innovation and collaboration along a complex supply chain
With the threat of a dockworkers strike shutting down East Coast ports on Tuesday, an association of shipping and terminal companies said it has filed an unfair labor practice with the National Labor Relations Board, seeking to force the dockworkers union back to the negotiating table.
The International Longshoremen’s Association, based in North Bergen, represents about 85,000 port workers across the East and Gulf coasts. Its leaders cut off contract talks in June after learning that a form of automation had been introduced at the Port of Mobile in Alabama, which they said violated the existing contract.
The contract between the union and the U.S. Maritime Alliance, or USMX, which represents the shipping and port terminal companies, expires on Monday, and a strike could start the next day.
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A strike by the ILA union would effectively shut down some of the busiest ports across the nation, including the Port of New York and New Jersey, which has key facilities in Newark, Elizabeth and Staten Island, potentially upending the delivery of billions of dollars’ worth of consumer goods before the holiday shopping season.
“Due to the ILA’s repeated refusal to come to the table and bargain on a new master contract, USMX filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board and requested immediate injunctive relief — requiring the union to resume bargaining — so that we can negotiate a deal,” the Lyndhurst-based USMX said in a Thursday statement.
ILA says USMX is offering unacceptable wage increase
The ILA on Thursday called the USMX complaint “another publicity stunt,” and countered that “foreign owned companies, represented by USMX, set up shop at American ports, earn billions of dollars in revenues and profits, take those profits out of country, and fail to adequately compensate the ILA longshore workforce for their labor are engaging in a real ‘unfair labor practice’ and have been getting away with for decades.”
Earlier this week, Harold J. Daggett, the ILA’s international president and chief negotiator, said in a statement that the “USMX knows what our bottom line with wages needs to be for our ILA rank-and-file to ratify a new master contract agreement.”
“They call me several times each week trying to get the ILA to accept a lowball wage package,” Daggett said. “My ILA members are not going to accept these insulting offers that are a joke considering the work my ILA longshore workers perform, and the billion dollar profits the companies make off the backs of their labor.
“The blame for a coast wide strike in a week that will shut down all ports on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts falls squarely on the shoulders of USMX,” he said.
Impact on Port of New York and New Jersey
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is not involved in negotiations between the ILA and the USMX.
But the Port Authority, which leases the space at the ports to the shipping and terminal companies, has been working in recent weeks to bring in as many ships as it could before a possible work stoppage and planning out an orderly shutdown of the ports, Beth Rooney, the Port Authority’s ports director, has said.
If a strike occurs, all activity involving loading and unloading cargo containers and automobiles will come to a halt, Rooney said. Cruise ships will continue to operate.
The ports are unloading about 20 large container ships a week, and Rooney said they expect 150,000 containers to be unloaded before a possible strike hits.
Strike could cost US economy $1 billion a day
Container xChange, a Germany-based globe container trading and leasing firm, estimated Thursday that every day the strike goes on could cost the U.S economy $1 billion.
“Many importers — retailers and other companies — have been aware for months of the possibility of a strike, and have therefore pushed forward their importing schedule so that a lot of holiday goods are already in the country and safe from a strike,” said Peter Tirschwell, vice president for maritime and trade at S&P Global.
In addition, shipping to ports on the West Coast has surged. But that rerouting process can drive up the cost of goods once they reach store shelves.
A strike could impact key ports on the East and Gulf coasts, from Maine to Houston.
Could cause weeks of supply chain delays
Tirschwell said that a strike of a few days could mean weeks of supply chain delays, while a strike lasting a week or longer would mean delays of over a month.
The ILA union leaders are seeking significant pay hikes for their members, saying they deserve a fair share of the profits that shipping and port terminal companies have made as cargo volume remains higher after the demand caused during the COVID-19 pandemic.
They also oppose efforts to automate the ports, which would reduce jobs for dockworkers.
President Joe Biden does not plan to intervene to prevent a strike at this time, Reuters has reported.
Presidents do have the authority to intervene in certain labor disputes by imposing an 80-day, cooling-off period under the Taft-Hartley Act, forcing workers back on the job while negotiations continue.
“We’ve never invoked Taft-Hartley to break a strike and are not considering doing so now,” a Biden administration official told Reuters.
(This story was updated to add new information.)
Daniel Munoz covers business, consumer affairs, labor and the economy for NorthJersey.com and The Record.
Email: [email protected]; Twitter:@danielmunoz100 and Facebook
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Publish date : 2024-09-26 04:52:00
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