ILA wants to stop computerization

The ILA has rejected a contract extension, because, get this, the terminals and carriers want to be able to use more computer technology, and the union says NO!

I realize everyone is fearful of losing jobs to computers, but please, look at the big picture.

From The Journal of Commerce

The NYSA is part of United States Maritime Alliance, which proposed a two-year extension of the ILA's Atlantic and Gulf master contract that expires next September.

The ILA's 200-member wage scale committee rejected the extension this month, mainly because it did not meet union demands to restrict the use of computer-based technology.

NYSA President Joseph Curto said the contract rejection was "disappointing" because employers had worked with the ILA in implementing technology. He said the extension would have given an immediate wage increase totaling an estimated $1.24 million in the next year to entry-level dockworkers, whose pay would have jumped from $16 an hour to $20.

ILA opponents of the extension complained that it would have delayed by one year a general wage increase set for Oct. 1 under the current contract. But Curto said that during the proposed extension to 2012, dockworker wages in the port would have risen an estimated $61.5 million because of back-loaded increases targeted mainly at workers in lower wage tiers.

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