NJ.com NY/NJ port employers and longshoremen reach tentative deal

By Steve Strunsky/The Star-Ledger 
on March 07, 2013 at 7:51 PM

A tentative six-year deal has been reached between local shipping companies and the union representing 4,500 longshoremen at the Port of New York and New Jersey, the two sides announced today.

The deal between the New York Shipping Association and a dozen union locals belonging to the International Longshoremen’s Association addresses regional issues not specified in a related master contract agreement reached last month between the longshoremen’s union and a nationwide port employers’ group.

The protracted, sometimes contentious talks over the master contract between the ILA’s international leadership and the United States Maritime Association, or USMX, included threats of a potentially crippling East Coast port strike by 15,000 longshoremen at more than a dozen ports from Maine to Texas.

A tentative deal on the master contract was reached on Feb.1, after two contract extensions brokered by the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service that allowed the passing two scheduled strike deadlines.

But local agreements still must be struck between employer groups from individual ports and the ILA locals whose members work those docks.

"I understand that not all the ports have reached agreements," said Joe Curto, president of the New York Shipping Association, and a member of the USMX negotiating team.

ILA and USMX negotiators are scheduled to meet in Florida next week to finalize some outstanding issues under the tentative master-contract agreement. Only then — if local deals are settled — can union leaders present a master contract and related local deals to rank-and-file longshoremen for ratification.
Unlike during prior negotiations, however, there is no longer a strike deadline looming.

"Both sides, I believe, are working in good faith without a hard deadline to settle all the issues," Curto said.

Despite the lingering uncertainties, today’s agreement was hailed as a significant achievement. The Port of New York and New Jersey is the largest port involved in the master talks both in terms of cargo volume and the number of longshoremen employed there.

"We are happy to announce that NYSA and the ILA have successfully concluded local contract negotiations on a six-year deal and have produced a settlement that both sides agree will protect ILA members into the future and will allow NYSA-member shippers and carriers to remain competitive in the marketplace," the ILA and NYSA said in a joint statement, which followed four days of intense negotiations.
The local talks had centered on reforms to work rules that employers believed had hurt the competitiveness of the port, which were resisted by a union whose ranks have been decimated over the decades by containerization and other technological advances.

Curto declined to specify what local issues were agreed upon. The ILA did not respond to requests for comment.