The International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU) has allegedly initiated slowdowns in the U.S. Northwest ports of Seattle and Tacoma, as negotiations with the group's employer enter their sixth month.

The Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) announced the presence of action in a news release, and said the move would severely impact many of the largest terminals during the peak holiday shipping season. 

The two ports handle an estimated 16% of containerized cargo on the West Coast.

The new contract being negotiated between the ILWU and PMA covers nearly 13,600 workers at 29 ports along the West Coast.

A PMA statement said both parties had agreed to continue negotiating in good faith after the earlier contract expired on July 1, given the broader economic implications of the talks.

"Now, the ILWU has reneged on that agreement," PMA spokesperson Wade Gates claimed in the release.

The PMA statement said the ILWU initially targeted select terminals in Tacoma on Friday (Oct. 31), and expanded to more terminals in Tacoma and the Port of Seattle throughout the weekend.

The slowdowns at the Northwest ports have resulted in terminal productivity reduced by an average of 40 to 60%, according to statistics compiled by PMA.

After several days of reduced productivity, employers reportedly demanded that union leaders return to normal workplace practices, according to the release. It added that when the ILWU refused the request by continuing its slowdowns, employers were forced to begin sending workers home.

"In Tacoma, the ILWU is not filling orders for skilled workers, including straddle carrier operators who are critical to terminal operations," Gates said.

"This is like sending out a football team without the receivers or running backs. You can't run the plays without them. We have been told that ILWU business agents sent the slowdown orders out late last week."

The PMA release also claimed that for generations the ILWU leadership had disputed the existence of slowdowns. It alleged the ILWU would often make false or exaggerated claims of safety issues in order to justify unilateral actions that had repeatedly been found to be in violation of the coast-wide contract.

"In fact, the ILWU has refused to agree to a temporary contract extension – which it has agreed to during past negotiations – because such an extension would give both parties access to the well-established grievance procedure that has served the waterfront for decades," the PMA statement said.

"Jointly appointed arbitrators have continually found slowdowns on the waterfront to be impermissible, but with no contract extension in place, employers cannot access the arbitration process."

Gates said the PMA was now calling upon the ILWU to cease its slowdowns and agree to a temporary contract extension while it negotiates a new contract.

He added the union's agreement to a contract extension would give confidence to shippers and the general public, and would prove both groups' willingness to solve their differences at the negotiating table.

"The PMA remains committed to good-faith bargaining until an agreement can be reached," Gates said.

"It is extremely difficult to have meaningful negotiations under the current conditions in which the ILWU is deliberately slowing productivity in order to pressure our member companies.

"We urge the ILWU to re-think their slowdown strategy, which has the potential to cause great damage to the local, regional and national economies. It is essential that we resolve our differences at the negotiating table, rather than on the job site."

Photo: Port of Seattle, via Wikimedia Creative Commons

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