Representatives from the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and U.S. Maritime Alliance (USMX) has approved a tentative six year master contract.
Members will now vote to ratify the deal.
“I am extremely pleased to announce that today the parties have approved their tentative agreement for a successor Master Agreement. In doing so, the parties have successfully concluded lengthy, complex and understandably sometimes contentious negotiations concerning a multitude of economic and job related issues,” said Cohen.
“This monumental result, which will be submitted to their respective memberships for ratification, paves the way for six years of stable labor-management relations covering all the Atlantic and Gulf Coast ports.”
“What this means in real life terms is that once again collective bargaining proved up to the task and played a major constructive role in helping to avoid a potential disruption that unquestionably would have had severe impact on the nation’s economy – at the precise time that a significant recovery is in progress.”
FMCS announced on February 1, 2013 that the ILA and USMX had reached a tentative agreement, which averted potential strike action after the then February 6, 2013 talks deadline, leaving just local union negotiations to take place.
A posting on the ILA’s official Facebook page made shortly after the FMCS announcement said that three ILA Locals are continuing negotiations.
It followed postings earlier saying it was “crunch time at ILA-USMX negotiations,” and that ILA President Harold Daggett had said, “We’ve done all we can do.”
There was no immediate statement by USMX on the matter.
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