The International Longshoremen's Association (ILA), the largest maritime workers' union in North America, represents 85,000 dockers along the East Coast, Gulf Coast, Puerto Rico, the Great Lakes and major U.S. rivers. Six of the nation's 10 busiest ports have workers under the union's jurisdiction.
On September 30, the contracts of more than 45,000 dock workers under the union were due to expire, leaving less than four months to negotiate. The workers come from 36 U.S. ports from Maine to Texas.
However, on Monday, the ILA canceled its planned negotiations with the U.S. Maritime Union (USMX), the representative of the management side. The reason behind this is that they found that Maersk, a member of the U.S. Maritime Alliance and the world's second-largest shipping company, was using an automated system to handle trucking at its terminal at Mobile Harbor, Alabama, without using workers.
The union said Maersk's action violated a previous agreement between the two parties and was intended to "eliminate the jobs of union workers through automation". As a result, they chose to cancel this week's negotiations.
Harold Daggett, president of the International Longshoremen's Association, has warned that union members will go on strike if an agreement cannot be reached before the current contract expires. He has reminded workers in key trading hubs such as New York, New Jersey and Houston to prepare for a strike on Oct. 1.
If the contract negotiations do not go well, the impact will be enormous. Because at a time when global shipping is tight, a slowdown or shutdown of port loading and unloading work will affect the transportation of a large number of goods, from food and medicine to factory equipment, which will impact the global supply chain.
