USMX Official Says Recent Port Labor Bills Unnecessary

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Several bills in Congress aimed at regulating the negotiation of port labor contracts are not necessary, and would only complicate a relationship on the East Coast that hasn’t seen a strike or slowdown in 38 years, said U.S. Maritime Alliance (USMX) Executive Vice President Tom Simmers at the Coalition of New England Companies for Trade Northeast Trade Symposium on Oct. 27. Though industry groups have raised "rational" concerns about the effect of slowdowns and strikes caused by port labor negotiations, the answer "lies in what we've been doing for four decades," said Simmers.

Prompted by a year of slowdowns on the West Coast during negotiations of a contract between the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), bills recently introduced in Congress would set port reporting requirements (see 1506230029), punish deliberate slowdowns (see 1506290022), and give states the authority invoke Taft-Hartley powers to intervene in labor disputes (see 1507160061). The PMA did not comment.

However, the USMX has successfully negotiated 11 straight contracts with the International Longshoremen’s Association governing labor at East and Gulf Coast ports. The port operator association and the trade union have “successfully built a model that has kept the Gulf and East Coast strike-free for 38 years,” said Simmers. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” he said, noting that the bills could only serve to add confusion to a process that requires clarity.

With the current six-year agreement between the USMX and ILA expiring at the end of September 2018, negotiators are already at the table for over a year looking into a possible extension, said Simmers. “We’re not stuck,” said Simmers, declining to get into the specifics of the negotiations. Though it’s still unknown whether the negotiations will result in a contract extension or a totally new contract, Simmers said the recent history of East and Gulf Coast labor negotiations “shows peace, and that’s what I think will happen here.”