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Top US east coast labour negotiator seeks to escape decrepit bargaining model
US EAST coast employer chief negotiator has called the old way of negotiating with dockers "old" and "decrepit" and in need of reform.
Speaking at JOC's 2nd annual Port Performance-North America conference in Newark, David Adam, chairman and CEO of United States Maritime Alliance, confessed had no blueprint on how to proceed, simply the knowledge that something had to change.
"When shippers are trying to create cargo for us and move cargo through our ports, why do we need to do this? Why can't we find a better way?" Mr Adam said.
But ILA president Harold Daggett said the union would not change its bargaining process, except possibly to try to reverse the order in which coastwide and local agreements are negotiated.
Responding to Mr Adam's remarks he said: "The answer is no. We're going to continue to negotiate the way we negotiate now."
But Mr Adam said: "The process is not working. It's old, it's decrepit, and it really needs to be reviewed."
The model has evolved over decades. Master contract costs usually precede local bargaining, but there's ample opportunity for confusion and acrimony.
By contrast, west coast negotiations are conducted coastwide, he said, recalling his experience with the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) negotiating committees during three rounds of bargaining before with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.
Mr Adam said was not recommending a west coast model, but he admired its simplicity and thought such negotiating structure would be beneficial. On the east coast, he said, local agreements still remain unsettled in Baltimore, Charleston and Mobile.
He described the current USMX-ILA master contract, with its 14 supplementary local agreements, as "the ultimate cat-herding exercise. "You're talking about 15 contracts overall, and every one of them deals with all of these issues a little bit differently."
In the last round of east coast negotiations, container lines refused to sign off on the master contract until they won concessions on productivity and work rules in the local New York-New Jersey contract after a master contract was signed in April, 2013.
The International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) and employers' USMX ratified the master contract, but not before off-and-on bargaining twice brought the ports to a near strike.
Much has improved since, said Mr Adam. "The relationship went from really, really bad to really, really good," he said.
Most local agreements were completed soon after the master contract was ratified. But a year and a half later,
"I don't have a solution, but I have three-plus years to work on one," he said, adding that the current ILA contract expires September 30, 2018.
Speaking at JOC's 2nd annual Port Performance-North America conference in Newark, David Adam, chairman and CEO of United States Maritime Alliance, confessed had no blueprint on how to proceed, simply the knowledge that something had to change.
"When shippers are trying to create cargo for us and move cargo through our ports, why do we need to do this? Why can't we find a better way?" Mr Adam said.
But ILA president Harold Daggett said the union would not change its bargaining process, except possibly to try to reverse the order in which coastwide and local agreements are negotiated.
Responding to Mr Adam's remarks he said: "The answer is no. We're going to continue to negotiate the way we negotiate now."
But Mr Adam said: "The process is not working. It's old, it's decrepit, and it really needs to be reviewed."
The model has evolved over decades. Master contract costs usually precede local bargaining, but there's ample opportunity for confusion and acrimony.
By contrast, west coast negotiations are conducted coastwide, he said, recalling his experience with the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) negotiating committees during three rounds of bargaining before with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.
Mr Adam said was not recommending a west coast model, but he admired its simplicity and thought such negotiating structure would be beneficial. On the east coast, he said, local agreements still remain unsettled in Baltimore, Charleston and Mobile.
He described the current USMX-ILA master contract, with its 14 supplementary local agreements, as "the ultimate cat-herding exercise. "You're talking about 15 contracts overall, and every one of them deals with all of these issues a little bit differently."
In the last round of east coast negotiations, container lines refused to sign off on the master contract until they won concessions on productivity and work rules in the local New York-New Jersey contract after a master contract was signed in April, 2013.
The International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) and employers' USMX ratified the master contract, but not before off-and-on bargaining twice brought the ports to a near strike.
Much has improved since, said Mr Adam. "The relationship went from really, really bad to really, really good," he said.
Most local agreements were completed soon after the master contract was ratified. But a year and a half later,
"I don't have a solution, but I have three-plus years to work on one," he said, adding that the current ILA contract expires September 30, 2018.
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