West Coast dockworkers reach tentative contract
Larry Thomas -- Furniture Today, August 11, 2008
SAN FRANCISCO — Negotiators for West Coast dockworkers and the Pacific Maritime Assn. have reached a tentative agreement on a new six-year labor contract.
The pact, which will replace a contract that expired July 1, covers more than 25,000 members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union who work at 29 ports in California, Oregon and Washington.
A joint statement by the union and the PMA, which represents terminal operators and shipping companies, said the previous contract will be extended until the new agreement is ratified by both groups.
Both sides said they won't discuss details of the new agreement until their members have had a chance to review it. The union will begin a series of meetings with local leaders the week of Aug. 18.
The tentative pact averts a possible disruption of port operations. During the 2002 negotiations, the PMA locked out union members for several days, disrupting shipments of furniture and other good imported from Asia for weeks.
Dockworkers at Gulf Coast and East Coast ports are represented by a different union, the International Longshoremen's Assn. That group's contract with the U.S. Maritime Alliance expires Sept. 30, 2010.
