ILA Contract Negotiations Resume Today But Secret Meeting Sunday Adds Complication – ILA Strike Watch 2025
With only about a week before a new International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) strike could shut down East and Gulf Coast ports, the ILA returns to the negotiation table with the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX).
For shippers anxious about another disruption to supply chains, this is great news. When the ILA cancelled negotiations in the summer, the union never returned to the table for talks before going on strike in October. It looked like the ILA fully intended to strike, going back to November of 2023, and wouldn’t negotiate by the September 30th deadline to make sure it flexed those strike muscles and displayed its bulging leverage. After the strike ended, a new strike deadline of January 15th was established, and the ILA abruptly ended November’s negotiations with the USMX, it looked like we were seeing a repeat of the first go around. Many didn’t expect the ILA to return to the negotiation table before January 15th and a new strike.
Today’s somewhat relieving return to the negotiation table, however, apparently was not the first.
Secret Negotiation Meeting
Lori Ann LaRocco, who must be the most quoted CNBC reporter in Universal Cargo’s blog, reported that the ILA and port owners held a secret negotiation meeting Sunday on the contentious issue of automation:
A secret meeting between key members of the International Longshoremen’s Association and the United States Maritime Alliance was held on Sunday in an effort to help the dockworkers’ union and ports ownership find common ground on the heated issue of automation and semi-automation. A document produced out of the meeting indicates a focus on the creation of new human jobs to complement any new port technology.
Automation Talks
Automation was at the heart of the negotiation breakdown in November. The ILA has been publicly standing against automation – full or semi – to the point of wanting to walk back all previous compromises and agreements the union has made on the subject.
Perhaps the meeting was secret because the union did not want to publicly show any sign of willingness to negotiate on the issue. However, it seems impossible for a new agreement to be reached without some level of compromise on the topic.
That there was any negotiation held on the issue of automation would seem like a good sign for shippers that the looming strike could be limited or averted altogether. But with the secret meeting comes complication, according to LaRocco’s CNBC article:
According to sources close to the talks who were granted anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the negotiations — talks had recently broken down over the issue [of automation] — language on automation was drawn up to assist the full bargaining committee review process slated for Tuesday.
But the sources added that the language could lead to new concerns about added labor costs, and new risks to getting a comprehensive deal on wages and automation completed.
USMX Reaching the End of Its Rope?
The Biden Administration put an extreme amount of pressure on the USMX to accept a tentative wage increase agreement of about 62% over the course of the next contract. The USMX had been holding strong on its latest offer of a 50% wage increase while the ILA wanted a significantly higher raise for its members. Feeling like it had been forced into a bad deal, the USMX would reportedly be hard-pressed to give in on other key union demands, like going backward on automation agreements. In fact, sources said if other issues were going to go the union’s way, the wage agreement would need to be revisited.
Reportedly, those in the USMX camp called that wage increase agreement to end the strike just “provisional.”
Now, with the negotiation that happened Sunday seemingly revolving around more labor being added with new technology, it seems like the wage increase amount would very likely be revisited.
But, and not surprisingly, negotiated points from Sunday are not set in stone. Here’s a look at the details LaRocco was able to share in her article:
According to a document reviewed by CNBC, the agreement states that the ILA reserves the right to add union workers in the future to complement any new technologies and “there is a commitment by the parties to research and utilize all technology that would assist an operator in being more efficient and productive.”
The document specifies that skilled human crane operators have proven their ability to work with the aid of modern crane control systems to handle port tasks where precision is required. The crane technology includes cameras and alignment guides, anti-sway technology for precise container placement, and motion-dampening controls.
The document refers to semi-automated rail-mounted gantry crane operations “where humans control complex tasks while automation handles repetitive motions.”
It also cites manual RMG operations in which union workers operate the cranes manually without automation. Loading positioning sensors, obstacle detection systems, and real-time feedback systems were also cited as tools that “enable human operators to achieve precision comparable to automation.”
The emphasis certainly seems to be building technology around human workers, limiting automation. LaRocco got into concerns the ports have over “new labor costs that do not accurately reflect port needs and economics.” While important details still need to hammered out, employers believe the increased labor costs will ultimately be passed on to shippers, according to the article, and rather than adding necessary jobs, they are being added just for the sake of adding workers.
Ultimately, it sounds like there are many issues to solve in the next week. If they can’t be solved by the 15th, will we see another strike or could an extension happen to continue the negotiations? Shippers certainly hope for the latter rather than seeing the ports shut down again.
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