Federal mediator: Ports, longshoremen avert strike
The Virginian-Pilot
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NORFOLK
Negotiators for East and Gulf coast dockworkers and port employers have reached a tentative deal on a new contract, "avoiding a potential work stoppage," according to federal mediators.
"I am extremely pleased to announce that the parties have reached a tentative agreement," said George H. Cohen, director of the Washington-based Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, in a statement late Friday.
"The tentative agreement is subject to the ratification procedures of both parties and, as well, to agreements being achieved in a number of local union negotiations."
The existing "master contract" between the International Longshoremen's Association and the United States Maritime Alliance Ltd., which represents employers in ports including Hampton Roads, has been in place since Oct. 1, 2004.
It has been extended three times, most recently right after Christmas, averting a strike set to start Dec. 30. The extension was set to expire at midnight Wednesday, again raising the threat of a strike or lockout at 14 affected ports.
The announcement means that a new contract affecting about 15,000 dockworkers from Maine to Texas, including roughly 1,700 in Hampton Roads, is on track, though it's subject to formal approval processes.
The top labor negotiator for Hampton Roads port employers responded Saturday with a firm "no" when asked if a strike still could occur.
"We've got a contingency agreement on the master contract, based on the local ports getting their contracts," said Roger Giesinger, president and chief negotiator of the Hampton Roads Shipping Association.
Every longshoreman in union locals along the East and Gulf coasts gets to vote on the proposed deal.
"The majority rules," Giesinger said, adding that he expected that process, as well as the talks about local contracts, to play out over the next "25 to 30 days."
Even with the "tentative" qualifier on the agreement, port insiders were breathing a lot easier after the announcement.
"We anticipate working with no strike," a source familiar with the talks said Saturday. "That's absolutely what we're hearing."
While the two sides have been working on the larger, comprehensive contract affecting the movement of containers and "roll-on, roll-off" cargo, they also have been negotiating local contracts for each of the ports.
Partly because of the ratification processes, Cohen said his agency would not release details about the "substantive provisions that have been reached."
Even port insiders were coming up empty-handed in their attempts to find out more about the deal.
"I've seen zero for details yet," the industry source close to the discussions said.
Robert McCabe, 757-446-2327, robert.mccabe@pilotonline.com
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