Catherwood LibraryILR School

Over six months after first starting contract negotiations (see WIT for May 13, 2002), almost five months after their previous contract expired (see WIT’s for June 27 and 28, 2002), and five weeks after a federal back-to-work order ended a ten-day lockout by West Coast shipping companies (see WIT’s for Sep. 30, and Oct. 7 and 9, 2002), members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union have a tentative contract. Although the agreement still needs to be ratified by the union’s membership, and neither the ILWU or the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) representing employers are yet releasing details of the proposal, the overall picture is one of a major victory for the dockworkers. Having made it clear that they were willing to let the PMA cut labor costs through technology implementation as long as all jobs created by the new equipment would be union jobs (see WIT for July 18, 2002), the ILWU won not only on that point, but also won on the critical issue of higher employer pension contributions to compensate for technology-related layoffs (see WIT for Nov. 6, 2002).