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ILA announces new master contract (6/28)

The International Longshoremen’s Association has issued the following news release: Waterfront Leaders Laud New Master Contract NEW YORK—The President of the International Longshoremen’s Association, AFL-CIO (ILA), John Bowers, and the Chairman/CEO of the United States Maritime Alliance, Ltd. (USMX), James A. Capo, are pleased to announce that they have executed the Memorandum of Settlement for the new six (6) year Master Contract, which was ratified by the ILA membership on June 8, 2004. The new contract, which had been previously ratified by the membership of USMX, becomes effective on October 1, 2004 and expires on September 30, 2010. Both Mr. Bowers and Mr. Capo praised the efforts of the negotiating committees, from both labor and management, that engaged in bargaining for more than one year before the contract was finally settled in March of 2004. Both leaders cited the six (6) year term of the agreement and the resultant labor stability as a strong indication of the continuing commitment of the ILA and USMX to the uninterrupted flow of commerce through the ports on the East and Gulf coasts of the United States. While considered by some to be the costliest contract in the history of coastwide bargaining between the parties, both Mr. Bowers and Mr. Capo recognize that the main provisions of the new agreement will help the union in dealing with both non-ILA and non-union competition up and down the coast. The new agreement also provides for increased funding of the national health care program, MILA, without which longshore workers and their families in some ports could have been facing a loss of healthcare benefits. Both leaders also agreed that even with some cost-saving plan design changes, which will become effective with the new contract, the MILA plan is still one of the best joint union-management healthcare plans in the country. Mr. Bowers and Mr. Capo both expressed optimism that individual port negotiations on local conditions will be successfully concluded prior to the effective date of the new Master Agreement. ###