It’s been more than nine months since talks began to hammer out a new contract between West Coast longshore workers and employers.
And the usually reticent sides issued a rare joint statement late last week that said talks are continuing — but didn’t add much else.
“The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) announced that they continue to negotiate,” the joint statement said, “and remain hopeful of reaching a deal soon.”
Both sides have stuck closely to an agreement made when talks began to remain mum on how the negotiations were progressing and what was being discussed.
A snag was reportedly hit in October over a jurisdictional dispute at a terminal in the Port of Seattle that temporarily stalled talks.
A Feb 10 article in the Journal of Commerce, a trade publication, said negotiations only resumed that week after parties agreed to temporarily set aside the controversial jurisdictional issue that “has kept talks at a standstill for nine months.”
The journal, citing several anonymous sources “close to the negotiations,” reported that the resumed negotiations focused on terminal automation, health and safety, and wages, “issues that have received little attention since the coastwise contract negotiations began last May 10.”
But officially, neither the ILWU or PMA, the two negotiating parties, are commenting on the process, abiding by the silence agreement signed before talks began.
“We don’t have any additional info or comment beyond what’s in the joint release,” ILWU spokesperson Jennifer Sargent Bokaie said in a Friday, Feb. 24, email.
A PMA spokesperson, likewise, said, that organization had nothing to add beyond the Thursday, Feb. 23, joint statement.
Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka, for his part, said during his monthly news briefing last week that he thinks an agreement may come in March or this spring — though he stressed he had no specific…
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