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There are several key threats facing economic growth early in the new year, but as of this afternoon, one of them has been resolved.
A strike that could have crippled 15 major ports on the East Coast and the Gulf and put a crimp in the nation's commerce has been avoided after dock workers, port operators and shippers agreed to a deal that extends the workers' contract, a federal mediator said Friday.
The parties settled on a 30-day extension of the contract after a meeting Thursday with Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service Director George H. Cohen, the FMCS said in a statement.
The parties had faced a Saturday deadline for resolving the labor dispute. The International Longshoremen's Association, which represented the dock workers, had threatened to strike a day later.
The story hasn't generated a lot of attention -- the threat of economic damage from Congress has understandably dominated headlines -- but the port dispute had the potential to do sweeping damage to commercial activity, closing over a dozen of the nation's largest ports along the East and Gulf coasts.
At issue were "container royalties," which describe the existing cap on dock workers' payments based on container cargo weight. With that dispute resolved today, an extension will be approved, and negotiators will be able to reach a larger labor agreement over the next 30 days.
Had the strike occurred, business groups estimated it would have cost the economy about $1 billion a day. President Obama also would have been under intense pressure to use emergency powers and stop the strike -- an action he did not want to take.
With today's breakthrough, the White House can direct its attention to all the other ways the fragile economic recovery is in peril.
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Informative article, but there is a misconceptions that need clarification. The ILA and employers only agreed to a contract extension. In 30 days we could find ourselves in the same situation as this week if the two sides still have not reached agreement. The news reports, however, appear positive that the ILA and employers reached a tentative agreement over container royalties last night, so a major sticking point appears out of the way.
If Federal Mediator Cohen is so good at bringing parties in dispute together, I wonder why he is not involved in the fiscal debate.
A few technical problems need to be corrected in the article. In the thrid paragraph from the bottom, second sentance, the word "will" needs to be changed to "was." Also, the photo that accompanies the article is of the Port of Los Angeles. I know ports look the same to regular people, but for those of us who work in this business the least you can do when talking about a story involving East Coast ports is to attach a photo from an East Coast port.
Guess it's a case of "any port in the agendavists storm" ;>
a couple of weeks ago there was a story about the clerical workers on strike in Los angeles, ( http://news.yahoo.com/mayor-la-port-strike-federal-mediation-185124887--finance.html ) .
When I was a clerical worker for a major theme park in orlando, we were paid very low wages, we were not unionized (Florida, that right-to work state, you mean right to pay low wages), and we were treated like second-class citizens. I am not bitter, but wiser! We felt powerless to do anything because we couldn't strike and had no negotiating power. Meanwhile, executives made millions of dollars a year and lived in Windermere. at least these workers have some power and can band together.
if executives, managers, and those who pay our salaries would treat us with respect and realize that many of us have advanced degrees and skills and are not local trash, and pay us a living wage, there probably wouldn't be any strikes. Just an observation.
http://www.fmcs.gov/internet/