More > >

The Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) and ILWU are getting ready for contract negotiations. The talks won’t begin until early 2008, but both sides are putting their houses in order. In the last round in 2002, PMA barred longshoremen from port terminals after accusing workers of slowdowns. No one expects the talks to go completely smoothly. PMA is concerned about its rising health-care bill, now running $450 million annually, on top of wages and other fringe benefits it considers generous.

* * *

Controversy over uses of the former Military Ocean Terminal Bayonne continue. The Port Authority has made a tentative deal with city officials whereby about 126 acres of the site will be sold to developers for $50 million, but that contract goes on to specify that a cargo container terminal cannot be built on remaining parts of the some 3,000 acres owned by the PA. Instead, it now seems likely that a terminal for offloading automobiles will be constructed. The city wanted the restriction, but longshoremen are angry, maintaining that a cargo installation would result in more and better paying jobs and help the area’s economy.

* * *

The current contract between west coast longshoremen’s ILWU and the Pacific Maritime Association is set to expire next year on July 1. Settlement of the Office Clerical Unit of ILWU contract dispute – which ended in a three year agreement signed July 26 – was perhaps the run-up act.

Negotiations will begin on the main ILWU contract just past the turn of this year and both sides are optimistic. The union is developing its position through a series of local caucuses which will precede the negotiations. ILWU and PMA seem eager to avoid even the threat of a strike which could send cargos, which must be scheduled far ahead, to alternative ports of entry.

* * *

With the six-year labor contract between the West Coast ILWU (International Longshore and Warehouse Union) and the PMA (Pacific Maritime Association) set to expire July 1, 2008, both sides are anxious to avoid a trade crippling strike or lockout. Negotiations are starting a full year in advance of the deadline. A 10-day lockout in 2002 resulted in a number of shippers avoiding West Coast ports entirely and rerouting shipments over water directly to the East Coast. Shipping contracts tend to be locked in far in advance, and a hint of trouble could send shippers running again for alternative entry points. After a large and costly settlement in 2002, West Coast union chiefs are looking to maintain what they gained. Shippers want to rearrange shift hours so terminals operate round the clock. Cargo volume is expected to continue increasing and both sides hope for an amicable settlement and another multi-year contract come 2008

* * *

The port of Philadelphia remains embroiled in controversy over the building of several major gambling casinos along the city’s Delaware River waterfront.
Residents and city and state governments are almost at war as proposals are debated.

For governments, it’s a new source of glitzy revenue and patronage in an economically challenged rust-belt town. For building unions, the casinos mean major new construction. But Philadelphia’s longshoremen are uneasy. It’s not that the casinos will displace working docks, but union leaders say the proposed new facilities will restrict port expansion options and create traffic congestion that will make it difficult for the big port truck fleets to get through.

“Dual use” of riverfront roadways will add time and costs to Philadelphia shipments and make it even more difficult for the port of Philadelphia to compete with Baltimore and New Jersey.

That in turn points to further erosion of high-paying dock jobs, benefits and pensions.

* * *

An upcoming April election within the Bayonne, New Jersey Local 1588 of the International Longshoremen Association (ILA) may bare simmering conflicts within the troubled union that has been under a federal government trusteeship since January 2003.
Several leaders of the small but powerful union beat racketeering charges in 2005 -- one co-defendant was found murdered -- but rank-and-file members continue to experience problems with the union’s health benefits fund. More and more doctors no longer accept union reimbursement programs. Still, anonymous “reformers” may be attempting to oppose a new leadership allegedly anointed by the Cosa Nostra.

Power struggles continue as well between old line connected families dominating port unions in NY/NJ and South Florida and emerging African/American leadership in other Southern ports.
Even if reformers were to wrest control of Local 1588, they still would face huge pressures from the surrounding international union bosses. What’s more, benefits for members of Local 1588 remain among the highest in the nation and there would be risks in withdrawing from the national health plan to “go it alone.”

* * *

The Pacific Maritime Association and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union are preparing for 2008 contract negotiations. Terminal operators are seeking more efficient equipment to make West Coast ports more competitive with those in Asia and Europe. They argue that with container volumes increasing 10 percent per year, operators must vastly increase their productivity. The ILWU is expected to resist moves towards increased automation, fearing loss of jobs.

Implementing container tracking technology is another major automation issue that will arise in contract negotiations. Currently, container spotting is done manually. Employers say this results in errors 15 to 20 percent of the time.

Terminal operators are also seeking steady work crews. Currently, less than 25 percent of workers at a given terminal are regularly stationed there, which operators again say hinders productivity.

* * *

In a last minute save, Waste Management of Alameda County and the International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union Local 6, representing about 100 landfill workers, finalized an agreement so waste removal services could continue in the county.

Had a threatened strike materialized, it seemed likely to be honored by some 800 other garbage workers — most in the Teamsters’ union —  and the deadlock would have brought trash processing to a complete halt in San Leandro, San Lorenzo, and Castro Valley, among other East Bay cities.

The disputed contract had expired 17 months ago. The new five-year contract includes a 25-percent wage increase over the period of the contract. Workers will potentially be earning $20 to $28 per hour by the end of that term.

One of the most contentious issues during negotiations had been employee contributions to health benefits. The union finally agreed to a contribution of about $20 per month by its members for health insurance. A Waste Management supported pension plan will stay in place as is.

* * *

In 1974 Congress passed ERISA to guard against mismanagement of pension funds, including those run by labor unions. Labor officials must account for revenues and expenses on an annual basis. 

The DOL requires union officers and non-clerical employees to file a Labor Organization Officer and Employee Report, known as Form LM-30, if they, their spouses or minor children have interests or dealings related to pensions. The LM-30 should contain a record of all financial transactions whose workers the union represents or seeks to represent. 

At an August 7 session of the American Bar Association’s annual meeting in Honolulu, Joyce Mader, a lawyer from Washington, D.C., cautioned the audience the government is in the process of revising LM-30 rules and that managers and trustees of union plans should prepare for fishing expeditions by the DOL’s Employee Benefit Security Administration (EBSA).  “Get your expense policies in order before LM-10 and LM-30 come around,” she said, “or there is a ready-made discovery package as to how much was paid for individual trustees.”   

* * *

Since ports in the U.S. basically break down onto four areas – west coast ports, New York area ports, Charleston area ports, and Gulf ports – the longshoreman locals representing dockworkers in those districts negotiate contracts with the maritime associations representing shipping interests in those same areas. So-called “master contracts” usually set the outlines for such negotiations.

Master contracts in different areas may use different formulas for calculating pension contributions. Shippers’ contributions to pension funds are based on some combination of total man hours worked and/or the tonnage moved. Since imports into west coast ports, for instance, have been soaring for decades, it is in the unions’ interest to tie pensions to tonnage so pension levels can be maintained and increased even if technology, rather than manpower, is used to handle the increase.

Company contributions go into funds managed by the maritime associations, which are subject to increasingly strict government rules, and to union-managed funds where reporting rules are less strict.

The eligibility of individual dockerworkers for defined levels of pensions are crucial in union negotiations. Eligibility is obviously important to individual dockworkers, but structuring of pension levels also drives the total contribution shippers must make.

While elsewhere in the economy, pension benefits are rocked by bankruptcies and global competition,  longshoremen pensions are tied in part to the volume of tonnage which continues to rise. In effect, rather than being hurt by overseas outsourcing, dockworkers are actually helped by it, and so their pension negotiations turn increasingly to job security and eligibility issues. 

* * *

In what could be a pace-setting contract for East-coast longshore labor negotiations, the International Longshoremen's Association's Local 1964 finalized a new 3 year agreement with Evergreen America Corporation covering 115 office clerical workers in the company’s Jersey City, New Jersey facility. Details have not been released but union officials assured members that the contract brings increases in wages, maintenance of health and pension benefits, as well as better job security. The settlement reportedly gives the company the flexibility it needs – based on continuing negotiations on the introduction of new technology – to remain competitive and responsive to customer needs. The new three-year agreement goes into effect retroactively on August 1, 2006.

* * *

On Thursday, Aug. 17, President Bush signed into law the Pension Protection Act of 2006, which he called the "most sweeping reform" of US pension law since the enactment of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) in 1974. The compromise measure will have broad impact on the way future pension plans are structured and funded, but to a much greater degree on single employer plans than on the multiemployer plans more common for longshoremen. It will affect pension outcomes, not only for tens of thousands of employees whose plans are currently hanging on the contents of the bill, but for millions of Americans who do not follow pension issues closely.

Affected groups everywhere are weighing in with commentary. With some 44 million Americans covered by private pension plans, bipartisan support for private sector reform was made possible by not stirring up a hornet’s nest of debate about stricter funding guidelines for public employee defined-benefit plans, which remain generous and are woefully underfunded. In any case, the bill may well signal the end of the era private defined-benefit pension plans. As recently as 25 years ago, more than 80 percent of large and medium-sized companies offered such plans. Today, fewer than a third do.

* * *

Late in the day on August 3, the Senate approved a compromise Pension Reform Bill and sent it on to the White House. It tightens rules for employers with defined-benefit pension plans and clamps down on companies that have fallen behind in meeting their funding obligations. Negotiated multiemployer plans common in longshore industries involve some 60,000 to 65,000 employers. Many have fewer than 100 employees, but some are large companies with potentially large liabilities.

Underfunding of Defined Benefit plans is now estimated at $450 billion. The  bill requires that companies bring their plans to 100 percent funding within seven years, although certain major airlines are given a longer period. Plans that are seriously underfunded face restrictions, such as a ban on increasing benefits, and must make accelerated catch-up contributions. President Bush, who has taken a tough stance on forcing full funding of company promises, is expected to sign the legislation shortly.

* * *

< < Back

More > >

More > >

1. So you’re a Longshoremen . . .
2. It's good now ... will it be good later
3. Is my pension seaworthy?
4. Where do I go to find out about my pension?
5. Contact info for Longshoremen