On September 30th, the U.S. Maritime Alliance (USMX), representing employers at U.S. East and Gulf ports, said it and the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) “have traded counter offers related to wages.”
The offer may have come too late as the ILA went out on strike after midnight on October 1st claiming USMX employers had ignored their demands for increases in wages, benefits and working conditions.
U.S.M.X. says its offer includes a 50% increase in wages: “Our offer would increase wages by nearly 50 percent, triple employer contributions to employee retirement plans, strengthen our health care options, and retain the current language around automation and semi-automation.”
The ILA had proposed a 77% pay raise over the six-year life of the contract.
Earlier, ILA President Harold Daggett said, in a letter to union members, that USMX was not negotiating in good faith.
Daggett charged that USMX has exploited a low wage regime for years: “USMX claims to offer industry-leading wages. However, their interpretation of ‘leading wages’ is polar opposite to ours. Inflation has completely eaten into any raises and wages …They have taken advantage of a low entry wage and a tiered progression system for thirty years. We outright reject their position on the new entry wage.”
Daggett and the ILA are also opposed to automation: “USMX is trying to fool you with promises of workforce protections for semi-automation. Let me be clear: we don’t want any form of semi-automation or full automation. We want our jobs—the jobs we have historically done for over 132 years.”
Large retailers and other importers brought in goods from abroad early this year in anticipation of the ILA work stoppage and so the immediate impact of the strike will not be severe.
However, industry executives say that a strike that goes on beyond ten days will have a serious impact on the U.S. economy.
