ILA Agrees to 90 day extention of contract

This from the FMCS web-site

Release Date: 9/20/2012

WASHINGTON, D.C. — "I am pleased to announce that at the close of today’s productive negotiation session, in which progress was made on several important subjects, the parties have agreed to extend the collective bargaining agreement due to expire on September 30, 2012 for a ninety (90) day period, i.e. through December 29, 2012. In taking this significant step, the parties emphasized that they are doing so “for the good of the country” to avoid any interruption in interstate commerce.

"This extension will provide the parties an opportunity to focus on the outstanding core issues in a deliberate manner apart from the pressure of an immediate deadline. The negotiations on the Master Agreement will be conducted during the same time frame as negotiations for local agreements. The negotiations will continue under the auspices of the FMCS. Due to the sensitive nature of these high profile negotiations, we will have no further comment on the schedule for the negotiations, their location, or the substance of what takes place during those negotiations."

click here for link

Update ILA contract talks

The contract talks between the ILA and USMX are to restart this week, with a mediator.

The locations of the talks are being kept secret.  I presume the day to day outcome of the
talks will only be available from either the ILA, USMX, or the mediator.  I don't really know
what has been agreed.

The USMX web-site,  should post updates on the ILA negotiations, when available.

click here for the link.

So far, nothing has been posted.

ILA and the Waterfront Commission

Below is part of the letter from USMX (who is negotiating with the ILA).  Apparently the ILA
thinks (or maybe it's true) that all they have to do is threaten to strike and they will get what they want.

What I don't understand is the comment in the second paragraph about the Waterfront Commission
of New York and New Jersey.  What's this all about?   The contract covers all of the US East/Gulf
ports.   Is the Waterfront Commission still influenced by the mafia?   

When we met during the week of August 20th, USMX presented the issues that we believed
were critical to successfully reaching an agreement. Those issues all center around inefficiencies
that have crept into our operations over the years. I’m referring to archaic work rules and
manning practices, and the system of guarantees and overtime pay practices that result in
millions of dollars being paid for time not worked. These inefficiencies are causing many of our
ports to become prohibitively expensive, harming our competitive ability and threatening the
long term viability of our operations. USMX was hopeful that we would receive the same
consideration from the ILA as we had given it on its critical issues. Instead, our presentations
were simply rejected without any consideration, and when management objected to this lack of
consideration, the ILA responded with a threat to strike.

Many of these issues are the same ones cited in a recent report compiled by the Waterfront
Commission of New York and New Jersey. I’m somewhat at a loss to understand why the ILA
would appear to be willing to have an outside agency attempt to force a solution on the parties,
rather than have the parties address the issues in the collective bargaining arena, at the
bargaining table, where they properly belong.

click here for link to complete letter