ILWU-PMA Contract Negotiations Cause Cargo Delays and Raise Shipping Costs

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) have been in contract discussions for months, but the crisis at West Coast ports shows no signs of abating. Major West Coast ports are covered by the collective bargaining agreement, and there is concern that a lack of agreement could cause a disturbance in the workplace. There has been a delay in throughput at West Coast gateways because ocean carriers and shippers have redirected some goods to competing ports on the Gulf Coast and East Coast to lessen the impact of such an event. But, on Thursday, the two parties issued a joint statement to assure the maritime community that progress is being made, although they did not provide any other specifics.

The ILWU and PMA have stated that the negotiations are closed to the public and the media and that any reports claiming insider knowledge of what is happening at the bargaining table are, at best, conjectural. Certain aspects of the deal, such as health benefits, have already been agreed upon, and the contract will cover the 22,000 dockworker members of the ILWU at roughly 30 ports up and down the U.S. West Coast. The two groups still have faith that they can settle their differences.

A conflict between the ILWU and another union, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), has apparently stalled the negotiations. The dispute is over who, exactly, will be responsible for cold-ironing at a particular Seattle terminal. SSA Marine, the port operator, was accused by ILWU, the working union, of starting the inter-union dispute by assigning the work to the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.

If the rumors are true, this dispute would be similar to one between the ILWU and the IBEW, which represents electricians. As a result of a dispute over who was responsible for plugging and unplugging reefer containers at the Port of Portland, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) engaged in unlawful labor slowdowns across the container terminal, which eventually led to the loss of the Port of Portland's sole container terminal operator, ICTSI, and its last ocean containerized freight service. In 2019, ICTSI successfully sued the ILWU in federal court and was awarded a $94 million judgment. The union was facing bankruptcy because of the award, and the case is still being litigated.