West Coast container port operations are being disrupted by a dispute over the size of dockworkers’ next pay raise, with disruptions now starting to affect ship operations.
“We got a rash of vessel movements canceled overnight,” said Kip Louttit, executive director of the Marine Exchange of Southern California, on Wednesday.
Departures of six ships berthed in Los Angeles or Long Beach have been delayed: the Cosco Portugal, Cosco Oceania, Cosco Shipping Rose, CMA CGM Amerigo Vespucci, CSCL Yellow Sea and YM Unicorn. Arrivals of four ships to the ports are delayed: the Aitolikos, Cosco Denmark, Cosco Netherlands and Cosco Taicang. Yet another ship, the MSC Jeongmin, had its arrival in Los Angeles delayed Tuesday.
International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) dockworkers handle cargo across the West Coast, including at the major container gateways of Los Angeles, Long Beach and Oakland in California, and Seattle and Tacoma in Washington.
Union pushes for higher wages
The ILWU is demanding wages and benefits in the next five-year contract that reflect dockworkers’ role in the COVID-era import boom, a one-off event that ended last year. The prior contract expired July 1, 2022.
The union cited the decrease in member wages and benefits as a share of the revenues of terminal employers and ocean carriers represented by the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA).
ILWU Local 13 said that “ocean carriers and terminal operators have thumbed their noses at the work force’s basic requests” after effectively treating dockworkers’ lives as “expendable in the name of profit” during the pandemic.
If the narrative is “greedy employers take advantage of American workers,” it’s only fair to take a closer look at what West Coast dockworkers currently earn — the starting point for pay and benefits they’re seeking to boost in the new contract.
Detailed compensation data is published annually by the PMA. It shows that West Coast dockworkers are already some of the highest-paid workers in the country.
ILWU wages vs. other professions
Full-time registered longshore workers earned an average of $197,514 in 2022, not including benefits, according to the PMA. Full time is defined as working 2,000 hours or more per year, or 38.4 hours per week. Clerks working full time earned an average of $220,042 and foremen and walking bosses averaged $306,291. (FreightWaves asked the ILWU whether it had any factual issues with the PMA salary data; the union did not respond.)
The PMA also paid $100,534 per ILWU registrant in benefits costs. Benefits include full insurance coverage, a 401(k) and a pension with a maximum yearly retirement benefit of $95,460.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics compiles data on average annual wages by profession. West Coast dockworkers rank toward the top when compared to the government stats.
Full-time dock foremen earned 24% more than the average CEO’s base salary in 2022 and 20% more than neurologists. ILWU clerks earned just $5,600 per year less than airline pilots. Full-time dockworkers came in 21% higher than lawyers and 9% above dentists.
Average earnings in 2022 for all full-time ILWU registrants — $211,000 — were 3.4 times higher than the average wage for all professions calculated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The caveat on the PMA data is that a portion of union registrants are under the full-time threshold. Of longshore workers, 42% worked less than 2,000 hours in 2022. The bulk of longshore workers (including non-full-time workers) earned in the $100,000-$200,000 range, with a significant number working fewer hours down in five figures.
Among clerks, 19% worked less than 2,000 hours, with overall earnings bunched in the $150,000-$225,000 range. Of walking bosses and foremen, only 10% did not meet the full-time definition. Salaries were grouped in the $250,000-$325,000 range. Some foremen earned over $400,000 and a few topped a half-million.
How ILWU earnings are calculated
The average 2022 ILWU registrant base rate — $46.23 per hour — doesn’t sound that steep for skilled labor. But as the PMA explained in its annual report, worker earnings also include an additional component based on skill level. Skill bonuses range from $2.40 to $5.80 per hour and were added in 80.7% of hours paid last year.
Pay also increases for the second shift (eight hours starting at 6 p.m.) and third shift (five hours starting at 2:30 a.m.) to $61 to $83 per hour. Work on these shifts accounted for 38.5% of total hours paid last year.
Then there is overtime, which accounted for 36.4% of hours paid in 2022. Overtime pay rates range from $69 to $93 per hour. Altogether, the PMA said the effects of skills bonuses, work shifts and overtime brought the effective average rate for all hours paid to $64.10.
COVID was yet another key factor. The ILWU labor force was essential to keeping goods flowing during the pandemic, despite risks to the dockworkers’ health. At least 43 union members died of COVID, according to the ILWU.
The change in consumer behavior during the pandemic led to a flood of cargo into West Coast ports that continued through the first half of last year, hiking both straight hours (non-overtime) and overtime.
The PMA paid ILWU registrants at all U.S. West Coast ports total wages of $2.31 billion in 2022, up $371 million or 19% versus 2019, pre-pandemic. The effective hourly rate rose 7% over the three-year period. Straight time was 22,895,230 hours in 2022, up 8% from 2019. Overtime came in at 13,084,540 hours, up 16%.
Click for more articles by Greg Miller
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Okmer Ametny
BK
Sunday, June 25, 2023 at 5:10 pm
Everyone should have a union backing them, there is no reason for these companies making multi billion dollar profits to not pay workers a living wage.
You dont call $200.000 to $350.000 a living wage??
Which planet you come from.
Unions are blackmailers and should all be put in jail.
Albert Li
Robert Nichols: Simple solution. Either push on, or just simply quit. No one put a gun to your head to remain on the job. And if you do remain, shut the hell up and do your work you crybaby.
Gord Thompson
To have a union demand cost of living wage and increase benefits for a full time dock worker in the ILWU making easily over 150k is absolutely insane. Automation and streamlining the work is common sense and a business approach makes common sense which the union doesn’t factor in with company overhead costs especially purchasing and maintaining expensive dock equipment run by dock workers who are under educated making an exorbitant amount of compensation should be ashamed of themselves. Having a limited educational background for most of these dockworkers have won the lottery and the PMA needs to stand firm and dissolve the union and it’s rhetoric holding the country hostage.
Get rid of the union and every dock worker gets paid as per other normal labourer’s based on their labour skill sets. Reality vs ridiculous wages…. Get serious and cut overpaid greedy unions and the workers it represents.
BK
Everyone should have a union backing them, there is no reason for these companies making multi billion dollar profits to not pay workers a living wage. Not hard to make the working person look bad when you own or control the media with all the $$ you send their way. If anything we need more unions so that people can band together to fight for fair wages, and get a fair cut of the profits for the work they put in for these greedy corporations.
Cody P
This is why unions have ran its course. They make $200,000 a year BEFORE benefits and its never enough. Unions can singlehandedly disrupt the supply chains of this country. We have seen it with the dock workers, auto unions and teamsters. This is absolutely insane. There is zero reason why people who make 4x the national average have the audacity to demand more. Its time to disband unions.
Peter C.Ely
What’s the deal for the causals? They need more work. If the A books or Bs refuse it or don’t want it go to the Cs.
But, fix the cranes at other terminals and docks so these containers can get in…
mary gross
The PMA has been sending crews home 2 hours into their shifts for weeks to pressure them during negotiations. Now they try to blame the workers. It’s a standard play during contract negotiations. Last time they only hired the day shift (the port usually works around the clock) and then sent them home after 4 hours. That’s 4 out of 24 working hours that the docks were staffed. Just like this year, they cry and whine that it’s the workers who are slowing the flow. It’s garbage.
MaritimeMimi is right, the leadership does lack formal education. They are not good at fighting this misinformation campaign. However, they are good at training their own regardless of systems that the employers’ management teams have put in place.
They’re not responsible for their hours being cut by 75% and they’re also not responsible for the way the shippers tools the worksites and manage their staff.
Shippers profits are at record levels after gouging all of us through the pandemic. They should stop holding up this contract which has been out of date for a year.
MaritimeMimi
I have worked with the PMA, the ILA and the ILWU. Your article is correct. Your numbers are accurate. Maritime unions on both the East and West Coast are holding this country hostage. Executive “decision makers” at the helm of local maritime unions are under-educated dock workers who have risen thru the ranks. With few exceptions they have no management or organizational skills. Locals on both Coasts are operating with inefficient, archaic dispatch systems… AND they expect to be paid top dollar for their inefficiencies. Maritime unions on both coasts are totally unprepared for a regional or global crisis.. i.e. COVID, ice storms, hurricanes, or even earthquakes. If the average American knew that their deliveries and basically the entire the economy, were controlled by labor unions in seaports whose leadership at the local level had a high school education (or less)… they would be afraid.