Port strike deadline nears, with signs of movement in talks

With hours to go before their labor contract expired, longshoremen on the East and Gulf coasts prepared Monday to go on strike at midnight, halting most activity at some of the busiest U.S. ports.

But for the first time in months, there were signs of movement in negotiations. The employers’ group, the United States Maritime Alliance, said Monday evening that it had “traded counteroffers related to wages” with the International Longshoremen’s Association and that it had asked to extend the contract expiring at midnight.

“Both sides have moved off their previous positions,” the Maritime Alliance said in a news release. “We are hopeful that this could allow us to fully resume collective bargaining.”

A spokesperson for the ILA did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Earlier Monday, Jim McNamara, a union spokesperson, said in a statement that the Maritime Alliance had refused demands “for a fair and decent contract.”

The ILA, which has 47,000 members, has not held a strike at all the East and Gulf coast ports since 1977. A walkout would cost the economy billions of dollars a day.

President Joe Biden could use a federal labor law to force the longshoremen back to work, but on Sunday he said he was not considering using that power. In recent days, top government officials have pressed both sides to reach a deal.

“The stakes are very high,” Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York said at a news conference Monday. “The potential for disruption is significant.” She added, however, that shortages were not expected and consumers need not stockpile food.

Recently, big unions like the Teamsters and the United Auto Workers have gotten much of what they asked for in contract negotiations. The longshoremen have even more leverage.

There is no practical alternative to the East and Gulf coast ports for moving many goods in and out of the eastern half of the country. And the ports can’t operate without longshoremen, who move metal boxes called containers on and off ships and handle other economically crucial cargo, like cars and heavy machinery.

Fearing a strike, many businesses ordered goods early so that they cleared the East and Gulf coast ports before Tuesday. But much cargo didn’t make it through in time and could be stranded at sea during a walkout. Even if a strike is short, it could take weeks to clear the backlog.

John Wrenn, the chief operating officer at MHW, an alcoholic beverages distributor in Manhasset, New York, is concerned that a strike might delay shipments and leave his business short as Thanksgiving approaches.

“Those are big opportunities for sales that will just be lost because products will not be on the shelves,” he said. MHW imports over 2,000 containers a year through the Port of New York and New Jersey, the third-busiest port in the United States.

The ILA said a strike would not stop work on cruise ships and military shipments. At the Port of New York and New Jersey, bulk foodstuffs like edible oils and orange juice would also be unaffected. But other food imports could stop, leading to shortages if a strike dragged on.

Stefanie Katzman, executive vice president at S. Katzman Produce, a fruit and vegetable supplier in the Bronx, is particularly concerned that mangoes, which are imported from Brazil, will spoil if they are stuck on a ship. She is considering flying some mangoes in, a much more expensive option.

“There’s nowhere near as much room to fly product as there is to send it in by boat,” Katzman said.

The West Coast ports will stay open because their longshoremen belong to another union, which agreed a new contract last year. Though some shipments are being diverted there, causing a recent surge in activity, those ports would not be able to absorb all the cargo that ordinarily goes through East and Gulf coast ports, which account for three-fifths of U.S. container traffic. And businesses say transporting cargo from the West Coast ports on trucks or trains to the East Coast is too expensive for many goods and destinations.

The ILA broke off contract talks in June, saying it had discovered labor-saving technology at a port in Mobile, Alabama. The technology, used to check trucks in and out of the port, has been at the port since 2008, when it opened, a person familiar with the port said. Last week, the Maritime Alliance asked the National Labor Relations Board to force the ILA to resume negotiations.

The union’s president, Harold J. Daggett, has recently focused the ILA’s campaign on wages, saying the raises offered by the Maritime Alliance were “insulting.”

Under the current contract, longshoremen earn a top rate of $39 an hour. The ILA has been asking for a $5-an-hour raise for each of the six years of the new contract, which would put them at $69 an hour in the final year of the contract, a 77% increase.

The Maritime Alliance said Monday evening that its latest offer would increase wages nearly 50% over the life of the contract.

With overtime and shift work, a longshoreman’s income can exceed $200,000. But longshoremen say they have to put in long work weeks to make that much money.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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