Although they’re
still locked in negotiations, the Pacific Maritime Association and International
Longshore and Warehouse Union say they’ve reached a tentative agreement on one
aspect of their contract talks: health benefits.
In a joint
statement released Aug. 26, the two sides said that the agreement on health
benefits is subject to agreement on the other issues in the negotiations. The
parties say they’ve agreed not to discuss the terms of the tentative agreement
while negotiations continue.
“Maintenance of
health benefits is an important part of the contract being negotiated between
employers represented by the PMA and workers represented by the ILWU,” the joint
statement reads in part.
Talks on a new
labor pact began May 12 and are still ongoing.
The previous
six-year labor pact, which covered almost 20,000 longshore workers at 29 ports
up and down the West Coast, expired at 5 pm on July 1, but although no contract
extension has been ratified, both sides have agreed to keep operating under the
provisions of the recently expired contract for the time being.
Although there are
no signs of a union strike or management lockout looming, there’s a history of
contentious talks between the PMA and the ILWU, which represents dockworkers in
California, Oregon and Washington.
Neither the 2008
or 2002 talks were resolved until after the contracts’ expirations. Last month,
however, the ILWU ratified a new four-year collective bargaining agreement with
several multinational grain companies that operate export terminals in the
Pacific Northwest.
