ILWU & PMA reach tentative five-year agreement

After nine months of contract negotiations, the ILWU and PMA have reached a tentative five-year agreement. This comes after several weeks of federal mediation and after President Obama sent the U.S. Labor Secretary to help broker a deal.

The U.S. Labor Secretary gave the ILWU and the PMA an ultimatum: reach a deal by Friday or they’d have to negotiate in Washington. A deal between the two parties was announced late Friday night.

According to the JOC, “The membership of both groups must now vote to ratify the contract, a process that could take several weeks. The details of the agreement were not immediately available.”

“The Port of Oakland stated Friday that it will take Oakland and other West Coast ports six to eight weeks to recover from the cargo backlog. Some industry analysts might say that is an ambitious schedule, given the magnitude of the cargo and vessel backlog at the West Coast ports. Some say three months is a more realistic goal.”

Although an agreement has been reached, importers and exporters with shipments transiting the West Coast ports should continue to expect delays and port congestion for several weeks. Both sides have said that they will return to full capacity after the agreement was reached.

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JOC: ILWU, PMA reach tentative five-year agreement

JOC: Long recovery ahead for West Coast ports in aftermath of agreement