A potential strike at ports on the East Coast and Gulf Coast continues to loom, with the International Longshoremen's Association Wage Scale Association having ended its wage meetings Sept. 5 unanimously supporting the call for a coastwide strike to take place Oct. 1.
"Sisters and brothers, it will be monumental if we are without a new Master Contract to replace the current one that expires in three weeks and four days from today. We must be prepared if we have to hit the streets at 12:01 AM on Tuesday, Oct. 1," ILA President Dennis Daggett told Wage Scale delegates, according to a Sept. 5 news release from the ILA.
Since the fall of 2023, the ILA has been telling its members to prepare for a potential strike, and the union has been negotiating with the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) on a six-year contract. This contract covers 14,500 port workers on the East and Gulf Coast and is set to expire Sept. 30, according to the USMX.
Vizient, a healthcare improvement and group purchasing organization, started notifying member organizations in April about the situation.
The USMX said in a Sept. 5 statement that the organization remains committed to negotiations with the ILA on a new Master Contract to avoid a strike.
"The ILA continues to strongly signal it has already made the decision to call a strike and we hope the ILA will reopen dialogue and share its current contract demands so we can work together on a new deal as we have done together for nearly 50 years," the statement read.