East workers and the Gulf coasts voted in favor of a new contract on Tuesday, ending the labor unrest in ports operating a large share of US transactions with the rest of the world.
The Dockworkers’ Union, the Longshoremen International Union, said almost 99 % of its members supported the contract, which increases 62 % over six years and guarantees jobs when employers import technology that can move cargo.
The deal was reached after a brief strike in October, the first complete escalation since 1977 and the intervention of two US presidents.
Biden administration officials prompted the United States Naval Alliance, the group representing employers, to increase its wage supply, which ended the strike and brought I.LA. Return to the negotiation table. After his election victory, Donald J. Trump supported the Union, saying he supported their fight against automation.
“This is an incredible package of contracts,” said Harold J. Daggett, president of ILA, in a statement.
Dockworkers workers have a significant leverage in contract talks because they can close the doors, throwing chains of chaos supply. However, the experts in the work said Mr Daggett had reinforced the cause of the Union by calling a strike and creating strong links with Mr Trump.
“The only way they had taken such an agreement was through the blow, showing that they had the financial power and, proves, political power,” said William Brucher, assistant professor at the Rutgers Management and Labor School.
All 41 members of Maritime Alliance, a group that includes port companies and shipping lines, voted for the contract, which covers the about 25,000 long transports carrying the containers to the east coast and coast of the Gulf.
Under the contact, hourly wages will rise to $ 63 in 2029, from current $ 39. This is comparable to pay for workers on the west coast, represented by the International Union Longshore and Warehouse, whose salaries will rise to nearly $ 61 in 2027.
With overtime and higher prices for night work, longshoremen can earn over $ 200,000 a year.
Ila has long opposed the introduction of automated cranes and other engines.
Like the old contract, young employers prevent employers from developing machinery that can operate at any time without a person directing their movements. The Union of West Coast Longshoremen has allowed such technology-such as vehicles moving without a driver-its ports for years.
But the new Ila convention does not prevent employers from adding cranes that can sometimes perform duties – such as stacking containers – without direction from a human being. And the new contract makes it easier for employers to introduce such cranes.
However, the Union received a guarantee of work that the administration would entrust at least one employee for each additional crane. (Now, a Union worker can oversee and exploit several cranes at the same time.)
