News

U.S. east coast, gulf port strike averted

A U.S. Meat Export Federation official says Wednesday’s tentative agreement on a new longshoreman’s contract is tremendous news for all of agriculture.

Joe Schuele tells Brownfield the unions representing the dock workers agreed on a wage increase in October and worked out their other contract issues during negotiations Tuesday. “That was the first time they had met formally in about six weeks but we did get news that they had an eight hour meeting on Sunday.”

Schuele says the contract was settled in the nick of time, as he expected port operators to begin restricting refrigerated and frozen cargo ahead of the January 15^th strike deadline. “I would have expected them to say as of January 12th or 13th or some date like that, we’ll no longer accept refrigerated containers because they don’t want that product arriving and then not having anybody to load it or any ship to put it on.”

Schuele says if a strike occurred, every week the ports are shut down creates a 100-million-dollar negative economic impact on export sales.  He says some frozen meat exporters could have diverted some product to the west coast, but many shippers of chilled-never frozen products must use the east coast and gulf coast ports.

The new longshoreman’s contract is for six years, which Schuele says brings stability to buyers and sellers.

The two sides have agreed to continue operating under the current contract until the ILA can meet with its full Wage Scale Committee and schedule a ratification vote for its members.  In a statement, The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and the U.S. Maritime Alliance said, “This agreement protects current ILA jobs and establishes a framework for implementing technologies that will create more jobs while modernizing East and Gulf coast ports – making them safer and more efficient and creating the capacity they need to keep our supply chains strong.”

AUDIO: Joe Schuele with the U.S. Meat Export Federation discusses the port worker contract deal with Brownfield’s Larry Lee