Paul Berger of The Wall Street Journal reports that officials at the dockworkers’ union will meet next week to discuss walkout plans at ports from Maine to Texas if demands for a 77% wage increase aren’t met. Berger writes:
Efforts to avoid a walkout by dockworkers at some of the nation’s busiest seaports are entering a crucial phase.
Union officials representing 45,000 workers at ports from Maine to Texas will meet for two days in New Jersey starting Wednesday to discuss wage demands and prepare to strike on Oct. 1.
Harold Daggett, the head of the union that represents dockworkers at U.S. East and Gulf Coast ports, this month said the International Longshoremen’s Association and employers are “at an impasse” over wages and that his members will walk out if the union doesn’t reach a new labor deal before the current multiyear contract expires on Sept. 30. […]
The ILA is pushing for a 77% increase for workers over six years, according to a person familiar with the talks, far more than the 32% increase the International Longshore and Warehouse Union won for dockworkers at West Coast ports last year. […]
The hourly base pay for an ILA dockworker at the start of 2022 was $38, according to collective bargaining agreements which also show the base pay for a West Coast ILWU dockworker in January that year was $46. Because of work rules and overtime opportunities, unionized workers such as crane operators on both coasts can earn annual salaries totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Denmark-based marine consulting firm Sea-Intelligence warned that it would take ports a long time to untangle the cargo pile-up of even a brief strike. It would take about five days to clear cargo after just a one-day stoppage, the firm estimated, while a one-week strike during the first week of October wouldn’t clear until about mid-November.
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