The chief of the largest container terminal at the Port of New York and New Jersey said he\u2019s confident a new contract with longshore workers can be reached before the current deal\u2019s expiration, something that would avert a potential strike later this year at East and Gulf coast ports.<\/p>\n
Gary Cross, president of Maher Terminals, said the current leadership of the International Longshoremen\u2019s Association (ILA) \u201care the most business-minded\u201d union officials that he\u2019s dealt with during his tenure in logistics. Cross delivered the remarks last week at the New York-New Jersey Foreign Freight Forwarders and Brokers Association\u2019s annual dinner, where he was honored for his 45 years in the industry.<\/p>\n
His message came after the governor of South Carolina struck a more defiant tone about ceding more power to unionized dockworkers at one of the largest ports in the Southeast.<\/p>\n
Maher, which handled about 2 million of the approximately 4.2 million containers that crossed the New York-New Jersey docks last year, is also the port\u2019s largest employer, with some 1,500 ILA members and management staff.<\/p>\n
While not directly involved in current labor negotiations, Cross said the ILA and the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX), which represents port employers, \u201care dedicated to making sure cargo flows and they are dedicated to getting a deal done.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no doubt in my mind that we\u2019ll have a new deal before the expiration of the current contract,\u201d Cross said. \u201cI\u2019m not losing any sleep over whether we\u2019ll have a contract before the expiration of this one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cross delivered the remarks as shippers begin to plot which ports and service routes they\u2019ll use in their 2024 contract negotiations with ocean carriers. The ILA and USMX started informal talks on a new six-year collective bargaining agreement in 2022 in hopes of reaching an agreement before expiration of the current contract on Sept. 30.<\/p>\n
The National Retail Federation (NRF), though, said recently it was \u201cconcerned that the discussions have been on hold for months and talk of potential disruptions has increased.\u201d The NRF urged both sides to \u201creturn to the table as soon as possible and resume negotiations.\u201d<\/p>\n
John Nardi, a USMX director and president of the Shipping Association of New York and New Jersey, said his group and the ILA are still negotiating a master contract that would cover all 45,000 longshore workers at East and Gulf coast ports.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are talking and trying to find a way forward,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Nardi did not comment on what\u2019s holding up further progress on contract talks. However, ILA officials have said publicly that alongside higher wages, they want local agreements that would add supervisory and foreman roles for union longshore workers at ports along the Southeast and Gulf coasts.<\/p>\n
Details please refer to JOC news.<\/em><\/p>\n Source:<\/p>\n Angell, M. (2024, February 6). NY-NJ marine terminal chief expects new ILA labor contract before October<\/i>. Journal of Commerce. https:\/\/www.joc.com\/article\/ny-nj-marine-terminal-chief-expects-new-ila-labor-contract-october_20240206.html<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The chief of the largest container terminal at the Port of New York and New Jersey said he\u2019s confident a new contract with longshore workers can be reached before the current deal\u2019s expiration, something that would avert a potential strike later this year at East and Gulf coast ports. Gary Cross, president of Maher Terminals, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[84,83],"class_list":["post-2896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-maritime","tag-us-ports"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ems.cohesionfreight.com.hk:8080\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ems.cohesionfreight.com.hk:8080\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ems.cohesionfreight.com.hk:8080\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ems.cohesionfreight.com.hk:8080\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ems.cohesionfreight.com.hk:8080\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2896"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/ems.cohesionfreight.com.hk:8080\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2896\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2897,"href":"http:\/\/ems.cohesionfreight.com.hk:8080\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2896\/revisions\/2897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ems.cohesionfreight.com.hk:8080\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ems.cohesionfreight.com.hk:8080\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ems.cohesionfreight.com.hk:8080\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}