Waterfront 101:
What You Should Know About the East Coast Docks

The Labor Contract

The contract, also known as the Master Contract, is negotiated between the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) and the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) as well as the Carriers Container Council (CCC). The current contract covers pay rates, benefits and broad work rules for all ILA employees handling containerized and roll-on roll-off cargo (RoRo - primarily automobiles) at ports from Maine to Texas. Other cargoes are not covered by the Master Contract and ILA locals remain free to negotiate separate agreements with local employers.

The current Master Contract is set to expire September 30, 2004.

The Negotiators

Organized Labor: International Longshoremen's Association (ILA)
The union represents longshoremen, marine clerks and checkers, and maintenance workers who load and unload oceangoing cargo along East and Gulf Cost ports. The ILA is divided into two geographical components, the Atlantic Coast Division and the South Atlantic and Gulf Coast Division. These two division help ensure that local agreements reached between ILA locals and individual employers covering work rules and even pay rates do not exhibit wide differences from port to port. The two geographical divisions also play a vital function during contract negotiations.

A collective bargaining round commences with the meeting of the ILA wage scale committee. Each ILA member submits a wage demands to the local ILA leadership which each local leader then forwards during the wage scale committee meeting. This becomes the basis for wage negotiations with the employers federation.

The ILA wage scale committee recently met on March 4, 2003 in Miami, Florida.

The Employers: the United States Maritime Alliance and the Carriers Container Council
The principal business of the USMX is to negotiate and administer maritime labor agreements with the ILA. The membership of the USMX consists of stevedores (or terminal operating companies that load or unload ocean vessels) along ports from Maine to Texas. The Carriers Container Council (CCC) represents American and foreign flagged ocean carriers during contract negotiations. The CCC remains an important employers group during negotiations covering southern Atlantic ports.

Geographical Disparities Along the East Coast

The Port of New York New Jersey
The massive port of New York-New Jersey spans terminals from Elizabeth, New Jersey to Broklyin New York. While the Master Contract allows ILA locals much leeway in discussing local or regional work rules with employers, local bargaining groups in New York New Jersey must contend with the Waterfront Commission. In order to hire additional longshore workers both the New York Shipping Association (representing regional employers) and ILA locals must receive permission from the Waterfront Commission - a bi-state agency that strictly regulates the supply of longshore labor through licensing procedures. The states of New York and New Jersey created the Commission in the 1950s to eradicate illegal activities along the waterfront by controlling the swelling ranks of longshore labor.

The South Atlantic
Several port authorities along the south Atlantic function as owner-operators. Among these are the growing ports of Savannah, Georgia and Charleston, South Carolina. These owner-operator port authorities purchase and operate all marine terminal equipment as opposed to leasing port property to private terminal operators. Employees that operate port-owned equipment are municipal or state employees and may not join the ranks of the ILA. However, the ILA may represent other longshoremen, clerks, checkers and maintenance workers that do not operate port-owned terminal equipment while performing work on cargo carried by CCC-member ocean carriers.

The Gulf Coast Ports
Ports along the Gulf coast handle mostly bulk and break-bulk cargo not covered under the Master Contract. Local employers remain free to hire ILA workers, other union members or non-union workers. In order to maintain a competitive edge over non-ILA labor, ILA locals along the Gulf coast agree to flexible wages and work rules that deviate significantly from the Master Contract.

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GLOSSARY

Clerks and Checkers
Clerks are responsible for performing clerical functions related to receiving, delivering, checking, tallying, yard and/or cargo area inventorying (including containers), sorting, spotting, weighing and inspecting cargo and/or containers for the purpose of keeping records required by an individual employer. Many believe that the imposition of technology enhancements at the terminals will result in job losses for the marine clerks. Checkers act as special clerks with the sole responsibility of ensuring that the proper containers are loaded
or dispatched from a vessel.

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Longshoreman
Longshoreman work the area surrounding a vessel and, in certain circumstances, board a vessel from port property

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Maintenance Workers
Maintenance workers ensure that all intermodal containers and equipment such as chassis remain in proper workable condition. Maintenance workers also staff roadability stations and any container freight stations located on port premises. The current contract states that any maintenance work performed on a container of any non-CCC signatory located on board a CCC vessel must go to ILA members.

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