Posts tagged West Coast ports
Labor’s Hidden Monopoly: Why the FTC Should Probe Union Power Too
April 1, 2025 // However, the modern economy calls for a fresh assessment of how we balance worker representation with the benefits of competition. Just as the FTC scrutinizes corporate mergers that could harm consumer welfare, it should consider the anticompetitive effects when a single union controls a significant share of an industry's workforce. Indeed, the FTC’s Bureau of Economics and Office of Policy Planning are both positioned to play a key role in researching labor markets to identify barriers to competition—including those created by government laws and regulations. By studying these dynamics, the FTC can publish research and spotlight how certain government-imposed rules or union protections may inadvertently stifle competition and harm workers.
Canada’s Labor Minister ends coast-to-coast port labor turmoil, forcing unions back to work
November 14, 2024 // Stephen Lamar, CEO of the American Apparel & Footwear Association, told CNBC it is relieved operations will resume at Canada’s three busiest ports and hopes a long-term, mutually beneficial agreement comes out of the negotiations. “The lockouts of the Canadian ports were causing ships to divert and contributing to congestion and delays throughout North America. As Canada faces reduced rail capacity from mandatory winter train length safety restrictions, and the U.S. West Coast faces two-year high rail dwell times, further disruptions would greatly strain the transportation networks,” Lamar said.
Labor strikes shut down operations at Canada’s container ports from East to West Coast, with U.S. trade left in limbo
November 5, 2024 // Ports of Vancouver and Prince Rupert are at a standstill after ILWU Local 514 walked off the job in a strike. The labor action comes on the heels of a strike at the Port of Montreal. In July 2023, 13-day strikes at these two West Coast ports impacted the delivery of U.S.-bound goods for months, from apparel to auto parts and key industrial chemicals.
The next president may face a ‘January Surprise’: Port strikes
October 31, 2024 // Pay isn’t the issue. There’s a whopping 62 percent pay increase for the ILA already on the table. The issue is that the union wants no further automation of the ports. That’s not reasonable. US ports are already far behind the international standard for automation. CEI has proposed a way to avoid these potential crises in the future: put the ports under the authority of the Railway Labor Act (RLA), as opposed to the National Labor Relations Act’s (NLRA), the law that currently covers them. The RLA gives the president and Congress the power to step in and force a contract. That type of intervention isn’t ideal, but the threat of it will likely force both the union and management to reach a deal quicker. Congress would have to amend the RLA to make that happen and it isn’t likely to get around to it in time to prevent another walkout by the ILA before January.
Opinion: How to Cool Down Labor Unrest at the Ports
October 31, 2024 // Congress should put ports under the same labor-relations law that governs railroads and airlines.
US shippers avoid East Coast ports on risk of second strike
October 31, 2024 // "Anything we expect that we need in the back half of January, we're effectively diverting to the West Coast," said Chris Peterson, CEO of Graco high chair and Crock-Pot cooker maker Newell Brands, referring to the period after the new contract negotiating deadline. Peterson said the company switched a "couple of hundred containers" of critical materials to the opposite coast to get ahead of what he expects will be a second strike lasting, at most, two weeks.
Dockworkers Launch Strike at Ports From Maine to Texas
October 1, 2024 // Port employers, pressed by Biden administration officials to resolve the impasse, raised their offer on wages to a 50% increase over six years, from an earlier 40% increase, along with other improvements in benefits in the 24 hours before the strike deadline. The ILA is seeking a 77% wage increase over six years as a condition to sit down to talks with maritime employers, according to a person familiar with the negotiations. The walkout shuts down some of the country’s main gateways for imports of food, vehicles, heavy machinery, construction materials, chemicals, furniture, clothes and toys.
Ports strike would leave Walmart, Ikea, Home Depot with few import options, union warns
September 29, 2024 // These companies are among the leading importers at the 14 major ports that an ILA strike would impact, according to ImportGenius. Overall, between 43%-49% of all U.S. imports and billions of dollars in trade monthly are at stake as the union moves closer to the Oct. 1 deadline for a new contract, over which talks between the union and ports management broke down in June and have not resumed. Cruise operations at ports would continue. “To stop trade entering the U.S. on such a large-scale, even for short period of time, is highly-damaging to the economy so government intervention will be needed to bring the matter to a resolution for the good of the nation,” warned Peter Sand, chief shipping analyst at Xeneta. “A strike lasting just one week will impact schedules for ships leaving the Far East on voyages to the U.S. in late December and throughout January.”
Dockworkers along the East Coast are threatening to strike in October
August 14, 2024 // Full-time registered longshore workers on the West Coast, which had its own share of unrest last year, earned an average of nearly $200,000 a year in 2022, according to an estimate from the shippers — some of the best-paid industrial workers in the world. Their numbers have dwindled as the industry moves to automation. That's been a sticking point in negotiations, as we previously explained.
ILA Starts Preparations for East and Gulf Coast Port Strike on October 1
August 6, 2024 // Bloomberg in its report highlights that that a strike would impact six of the 10 busiest U.S. ports. Trade groups presenting retailers and manufacturers have already called for government involvement to oversee the negotiations while many commentators point out the strike would come just weeks before the U.S. presidential election. “With less than 30 days to go before the end of our current Master Contract when these meetings are held, we must prepare our locals and our ILA membership for a strike on October 1, 2024. Two generations of ILA members have come into the industry since our last strike in 1977,” said Harold J. Daggett, the president of the ILA. The union has repeatedly said it would seek to oppose any future efforts at port automation and cargo handling and would also seek to roll back its past allowances.