Analysis-US port strike casts spotlight on big union foe: automation By Reuters

By Doyinsola Oladipo

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A strike by dockworkers on the U.S. East Coast and Gulf Coast that disrupted much of the nation’s ocean shipping this week ended on Thursday, but a key issue causing labor unrest on the continent – the increasing use of automation – was unresolved.

Companies see automation as a path to better profits, while unions see it as a job killer. For North American dock workers struggling with automation, European dock worker contracts may point to a way to solve the problem.

About 45,000 dockworkers from the International Liquidators Association union ended a three-day strike Thursday night that has shut down shipping from Maine to Texas after reaching a tentative agreement on wages.

The workers and port operators agreed to extend their contract until January 15, 2025, while talks continued. A key sticking point in negotiations for a new six-year labor contract is automation.

“We must continue to fight automation and semi-automation,” ILA leader Harold Daggett told a group of workers on strike outside the Maher Terminal in Elizabeth, New Jersey, as they held signs reading “Machines do not I feed families”. and “Fight Automation, Save Jobs.”

The union claims the use of an automated gate system at a port in Mobile, Alabama, violates their contract.

The port is managed by Netherlands-based APM Terminals, a member of the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) employer group. The automated gate system can process trucks entering and leaving the port using digital scans without the help of unionized labor, according to the ILA.

AP Moller-Maersk-owned APM Terminals told Reuters the automated gate has been in place since the terminal opened in 2008 and remains in full compliance with the main ILA/USMX contract.

USMX declined to comment on the matter.

CANADA STRUGGLE

Automation has also appeared in other U.S. and Canadian port labor disputes that have rocked global trade, from Los Angeles to Vancouver.

In June, 99 percent of workers in Canada’s International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 514 rejected what was then called the final offer from the British Columbia Maritime Employers Association (BCMEA), which covers the Canadian province’s seaports.

The union was upset in part because logistics company Dubai Ports World Canada told the labor group it would unilaterally introduce automation at a key rail yard in the Port of Vancouver.

“Workers are challenging automation because they know the negative effects that disappearing jobs have on our families and communities,” a spokesman for the ILWU Coast Longshore division said Tuesday.

BCMEA and ILWU Local 514 have been bargaining at the industry level since November 2022.

Last year, more than 7,300 workers went on strike in Vancouver as automation became a sticking point with the BCMEA. The ILWU sought to include language in contracts about training workers to repair new machinery brought into the ports.

The Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), which represents terminal operators from California to Washington state, said union workers in 2023 “effectively shut down” terminals at ports such as Los Angeles, Long Beach and Oakland in California when negotiations reached 13 months.

A report by the ILWU representing West Coast dockworkers found that in 2020 and 2021, the Long Beach terminal had 392 fewer jobs than it would have had it not been automated.

A competing report commissioned by PMA found that hours paid at Los Angeles ports have increased 31.5 percent since automation began in 2016. The authors declined to provide figures only for Long Beach.

In the new six-year contract, the union and PMA said they would set a minimum staffing agreement for terminals introducing automated equipment and discuss new technology changes.

EUROPEAN CONTRACTS

In Europe, port workers’ unions have already negotiated protections against automation after Europe Container Terminals opened the world’s first automated container terminal in Rotterdam in 1993, according to Berardina Tommasi, policy officer at the European Transport Workers’ Federation for workers porters.

“No one can be fired because of automation,” said Niek Stam, secretary of FNV Havens, the largest Dutch pig union.

The Dutch union has more than 6,000 members in three ports in the Netherlands, including the port of Rotterdam, which is considered one of the most technologically advanced in the world. “We’ve had that in our contracts for many years,” Stam said.

Even so, the union is seeking to address automation issues in its current contract negotiations, due to concerns about career longevity as automation reduces the number of less intensive roles at the ports.

“We have to talk about early retirement (with terminal operators) because workers can’t work until they’re 67 doing the most intense jobs,” Stam said.

Some level of automation is tolerable in the port industry, according to European and American union officials.

“We’re not opposed to introducing technology that makes us more efficient,” said Shaheem Smith, 41, a crane operator from New Jersey and an ILA strike captain.

“But when you start trying to do things that will take our jobs — that’s when we have a problem.”