Trade Groups Call for Long-Term Labor Deal at East Coast Ports After 'Breakdown in Negotiations'

More than 100 industry associations called on labor and port leadership at East Coast ports to return to the negotiating table “as soon as possible,” calling a recent “breakdown in negotiations” on a labor contract extension deeply concerning, in a letter dated March 2. A labor contract extension between the International Longshoremen’s Association and the United States Maritime Alliance “will provide supply chain stakeholders with the certainty they need for their operations,” while failure to reach a deal could see newly won business at East and Gulf Coast ports return to the West Coast, “where a long-term contract is in place,” said the letter, signed by the American Association of Exporters and Importers, the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America, the U.S. Fashion Industry Association and the National Retail Federation, among others. “Some industries will begin implementing contingency planning as early as this spring to ensure that cargo is not disrupted during peak shipping season in the fall,” it said. “In the absence of negotiations, those contingency plans will definitely affect business at East and Gulf Coast container terminals.”