Americas News
US Port Strike: ILA, USMX Set to Meet Before Dec 29 Deadline
The U.S. Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) said in an emailed statement today that the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) and the U.S. Maritime Alliance (USMX) have agreed to meet before a December 29, 2012 deadline for contract talks expires.
The FMCS statement by Director George H. Cohen said: "FMCS Director George Cohen has called a meeting of the ILA and the Maritime Alliance in advance of the December 29th expiration of the contract extension. The parties have agreed to attend."
"Due to the sensitive nature of the negotiations FMCS will have no additional comment at this time."
Talks over a master contract covering some 14,500 jobs on the U.S. East and Gulf Coasts stalled last week after the ILA said it would only agree to extend the talks deadline if the issue of container royalty payments was taken off the table, something which USMX would not agree to.
In what the National Retail Federation has called the "Container Cliff", ILA workers have voted to strike once the current contract expires on December 29, 2012, and shipping companies are warning that a strike would have a major impact on the nation's economy.
Maersk Line has already given advanced notice of a congestion surcharge it will implement to address "significantly increased port congestion" should U.S. ports be subject to strike action.
