Standoff Over – West Coast Dockworkers Approve Five-Year Pact - Maritime and Salvage Wolrd News

By James Nash

(Bloomberg) — West Coast dockworkers authorized a five-year contract with shippers and port operators, formally ending a months-long stalemate that just about paralyzed cargo motion from November via February.

With 82 p.c voting sure, members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union ratified a contract with the Pacific Maritime Association, which represents transport strains and terminal operators on the 29 ports from San Diego to Bellingham, Washington. The 72 employers represented by the maritime affiliation authorized the contract in a vote made public May 20.

The deal ends a 12 months of negotiations that broke down in October over points together with arbitration of office agreements. By November, cargo was backing up at ports that have been accountable for 43.5 p.c of U.S. imports in 2013, and a few firms have been diverting to different ports or sending items by air.

“The negotiations for this contract were some of the longest and most difficult in our recent history,” union President Robert McEllrath mentioned Friday in an announcement. “Membership unity and hard work by the negotiating committee made this fair outcome possible.”

The contract is retroactive to July 2014, when the earlier six-year pact expired, and runs via June 2019. Approval means the West Coast gateways can concentrate on competing with smaller, extra nimble seaports on the Gulf and East coasts and in Canada.

The contract features a $1-per-hour increase retroactive to June 28, 2014, and annual will increase via 2018 bringing the bottom wage for longshore employees to $42.18 an hour.