Members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), which represents dockworkers at all U.S. West Coast ports, have voted to ratify a tentative contract agreement reached in mid-June. The six-year agreement is retroactive to July 1, 2022, and runs through July 1, 2028.
U.S. Meat Export Federation President and CEO Dan Halstrom said the union’s ratification of the contract – approved by about 75% of the ILWU members voting – is great news for red meat exporters because it will bring stability to the West Coast ports and eliminate concerns about work stoppages and interruptions, which were seen at several ports during contract negotiations.
“We had some good news on the logistical front,” Halstrom said. “The International Longshore and Warehouse Union made it official, ratifying the tentative contract agreement that was reached in June. This is a six-year agreement retro to July 1 of 2022 and it will run until July 1 of 2028. So this is fabulous news for us and our members and specifically for exporters, because, you know, we have some certainty around the situation on the West Coast. We will not run the risk of any kind of disruption from a labor standpoint, and an overwhelming majority of union members voted in favor of it. So we knew this was coming but that is really good news, and we can move forward, especially with our high-value chilled business that primarily goes off the West Coast.
Halstrom is also hopeful that West Coast ports can regain some of the import cargo business recently lost to the East and Gulf Coasts, because this is critical for maintaining exporters’ outbound shipping options to key Asian markets.
“Over the last year in particular, the West Coast has been losing discretionary business, on the import side especially, losing to the Gulf and East Coasts,” Halstrom said. “Part of the reason for that was the uncertainty around the whole contract situation on the West Coast. So hopefully, Long Beach and Oakland and these key export ports for us can regain some of that business and have a larger array of options from a schedule standpoint into some of our key markets like Japan and Korea.”
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