News

With just two days left until the expiration of the union labor contract covering more than 22,000 longshore employees at 29 U.S. West Coast ports, U.S. Labor Secretary Mary Walsh is reporting that the talks are going well. He told Reuters on Tuesday that “there were no major sticking points” in the negotiations. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association recently admitted that they expected that the negotiations would go beyond the June 20 expiration of the contract. Both sides agreed to a media blackout during the negotiations but made a single joint statement about the status of the talks two weeks ago. They said that this was not an unexpected development noting that past negotiations have gone past the expiration.

As West Coast dockworkers and employers continue hashing out a new collective bargaining agreement, talks broke down last week resulting in a temporary strike at already congested German ports. Ports affected by the 24-hour warning strike, which ended Friday morning, included Hamburg, Bremen, Emden, Bremerhaven, Brake and Wihelmshaven. Some 8,000 workers participated in the strike, according to the union representing them in negotiations.