Retailers want port labor negotiators to strike a deal

{mosads}Negotiators in the port labor talks have until Oct. 1 to reach a deal before the expiration of the current contract between the USMX and the ILA. If that does not happen, 82 ports in the United States could see their ability to process imported and exported goods curtailed.

Representatives for both the USMX and the ILA have argued that their positions in the contentious negotiations are fair.

“Management’s primary goal in these negotiations is to maintain the competitive position and market share of the ports by improving productivity and removing the inefficiencies that threaten the economic viability of the ports,” USMX CEO James Capo said in a statement last week.

“Unfortunately, the ILA leadership has been unwilling to have a meaningful discussion about these archaic practices, among them ‘low-show’ jobs that pay some ILA members for 24 hours of work even if they are only on the job for a few hours a day,” Capo continued.

“USMX may not like that process, but the ILA has a democratically elected ILA Wage Scale Committee to negotiate the Master Contract,” ILA President Harold Daggett wrote in a June letter to Capo.
 
Representatives for the Port of Virginia have told reporters recently that they expect each side to ultimate agree to a deal.