Negotiations between the International Longshoremen’s Association and port operators stalled this week, making it possible that East Coast dockworkers walk off the job again in January.
The U.S. Maritime Alliance, which represents port operators and shipping companies and the union representing about 2,400 workers in Baltimore’s port left the bargaining table in New Jersey two days early after reaching an impasse on the issue of automation.
The ILA and the maritime alliance came to a tentative agreement after a three-day strike in early October, sending 45,000 dockworkers in East and Gulf Coast ports back to work until Jan. 15.
The strike was the second time this year that port operations were significantly disrupted after the port mostly closed for about two months following the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in March. When the cargo ship Dali hit the bridge, the span collapsed into the Patapsco River, killing six road construction workers and blocking the shipping channel.
In a statement Wednesday, the ILA said talks broke down Tuesday when port employers introduced a plan to implement “semi-automation.” Negotiations were supposed to last four days this week, the union said.
“The ILA has always supported modernization when it leads to increased volumes and efficiency. For over 13 years, our position has been clear: we embrace technologies that improve safety and efficiency, but only when a human being remains at the helm,” the union said in the statement. “Automation, whether full or semi, replaces jobs and erodes the historical work functions we’ve fought hard to protect.”
The tentative agreement reached in October included a 62% rise in wages over six years, according to the union’s statement.
In its own statement Wednesday, the U.S. Maritime Alliance said it was not seeking to eliminate jobs with new technology but to modernize, making workers safer and improving both efficiency and port capacity.
“Unfortunately, the ILA is insisting on an agreement that would move our industry backward by restricting future use of technology that has existed in some of our ports for nearly two decades – making it impossible to evolve to meet the nation’s future supply chain demands,” the alliance said.
Scott Cowan, president of Baltimore’s ILA Local 333, was unavailable for comment Friday.
Maryland Port Administration spokesperson Richard Scher said that while the state agency isn’t directly involved in the negotiations, it is “closely monitoring” the talks and encouraging both parties to make progress toward a final agreement.
The Maryland Port Administration owns Baltimore’s main cargo terminals, but private companies run them.
“While both sides have been meeting and making progress toward a deal, there is still a lot of work needed to achieve a new contract that satisfies the parties,” Scher said in a statement. “We remain hopeful that an agreement will be reached by the January deadline.”
A strike at the port would have a serious impact on the economy, both in Maryland and across the country, experts say. After just a few days, a work stoppage at ports along the East Coast could lead to shortages of goods from overseas.
Tinglong Dai, the Bernard T. Ferrari professor of business at Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, t old The Baltimore Sun in October that if workers were to strike for more than a week, consumers might see shortages of perishables like bananas, which are generally shipped to the U.S. from Central America. A more lengthy strike could impact additional industries, like auto sales, he said.
