Shippers find silence deafening on West Coast contract talks
With less than a month before the current waterfront labor contract runs out, the union representing 26,000 West Coast dockworkers and the organization representing shipping industry employers are still tightlipped about what, if any progress is being made toward a new contract.
Since the closed-doors negotiations began in March between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association, the two have jointly issued several statements indicating that talks on a new three-year contract continue to intensify, with each side exchanging and modifying proposals.
However, with the current six-year contract set to expire July 1, and with a news blackout imposed by both teams of negotiators, a leading shipper industry group is reporting that at least some of its members are enacting contingency plans to avoid possible fallout if the labor talks sour.
The Waterfront Coalition, a Washington-based advocacy group representing importers, exporters, transportation providers and others in the transportation supply chain, informed its members in a private message Friday that many cargo owners the group has spoken with 'have made the decision to either ship early or use alternatives to West Coast gateways given the lack of information on the progress of contract talks.'
The group said many of its members had expressed frustration at the lack of updates on the contract talks from the ILWU and the PMA.
'Even senior executives among some ocean carriers with West Coast operations are a bit hard pressed to receive status updates,' the coalition said.
Unlike the previous contract's negotiations in 2002, where each day's discussions became fodder for local and national media, ILWU and PMA officials have refused to discuss the current talks.
'There was an agreement early on that what happens at the table stays at the table until an agreement is reached,” PMA spokesman Steve Getzug said last month.
'The important thing is that the negotiations are ongoing,' Getzug said. 'There is still optimism that we can reach a fair and reasonable contract before the current six-year contract expires.'
ILWU-PMA contract negotiations typically start three months before the contract expiration date. However, leaders on both sides agreed last year to begin the current cycle of talks early. Following a breakdown in the initial 2002 contract talks, a contentious lockout by employers shut down West Coast port operations for 10 days. The resulting eight-month negotiation resulted in a contract that was not ratified by both parties until 2003. The final toll on the national economy from the lockout has been estimated at $10 billion to $20 billion.