West Coast Dockworkers Agreement Averts Economic Disaster
Earlier this month, West Coast dockworkers voted to ratify a long-term employment contract.
The vote was overwhelming. Approximately 75 percent of International Longshore and Warehouse Union members voted in favor of the six-year labor contract with the Pacific Maritime Association, which will affect the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach that constitute the busiest ocean trade gateway in the United States. (Those two ports alone handle almost 40 percent of U.S. imports from Asia.)
According to the National Association of Manufacturers, even a short-term, 15-day strike would have cost the U.S. economy nearly half a billion dollars a day and 41,000 jobs. The ratification formalizes a tentative agreement reached in June, which was preceded by several brief work stoppages, and is the culmination of negotiations that began in May 2022.
The negotiations, which ultimately took 14 months to resolve, were at times tumultuous, and the resulting supply chain disruptions led to a significant loss of West Coast cargo business to the East and Gulf coasts.