Port strike averted in eastern US, for now. Is labor starting to claw back?

Eastern port operators and longshoremen agreed Friday on a royalties package, extending contract negotiations 30 days. The strike threat at ports signals that labor is ready to fight for its life, experts say.

By Patrik Jonsson,?Staff writer / December 28, 2012

A truck driver watches as a freight container is lowered onto a tractor trailer by a container crane at the Port of Boston in December.

Steven Senne/AP/File

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Port operators and Eastern longshoremen agreed Friday to avoid a potentially crippling strike set for Sunday at 14 major US ports, at least for now. Negotiators refused to release details of the deal, but labor experts suggest the daring strike threat by dockworkers is indicative of a broader gambit by a besieged labor movement to claw back some power amid a strengthening US economy.

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The agreement over so-called ?container royalties? worth up to $15,000 a year for an average longshoreman does not fully resolve the dispute, but is part of a 30-day contract negotiation extension agreed upon by the International Longshoremen?s Association and the US Maritime Alliance, which represents shipping companies and ports.

?The container royalty payment issue has been agreed upon in principle by the parties, subject to achieving an overall collective bargaining agreement,? said George Cohen, director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service.

While federal mediators refused to disclose the agreement and said ?significant issues remain in contention,? Mr. Cohen said what he can report ?is that the agreement on this important subject represents a major positive step toward achieving an overall ? agreement.?

With Washington frantically trying to stave off a national ?fiscal cliff? of tax increases and automatic budget cuts, the already wobbling US economy likely would have teetered further if the 14,500 longshoremen had walked off docks from New York to Houston on Sunday. The workers handle 40 percent of US container traffic ? about 100 million tons a year ? and a strike could have cost $1 billion a day by blocking what is, in effect, the lifeblood of the US marketplace.

The situation had become serious enough for state leaders, including Florida Gov. Rick Scott, to call on President Obama to invoke the Taft-Hartley Act, a federal labor law used by President George W. Bush to end a 10-day, 29-port lockout on the West Coast in 2002.

The gritty longshoremen, meanwhile, are uniquely situated to push their agenda, even at the risk of losing public and political support, labor experts say. While relatively small, the longshoremen?s union historically has been aggressive in protecting its workers? benefits, and its members? central role to the US economy makes the union a particularly tough negotiator.

The strike reprieve was in part achieved with the help of federal negotiators dispatched by Mr. Obama, who owes much of his political success to unions but who has been wary of pursuing pro-union legislation that could negatively impact the soft economy.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/3PU-1jJe-S4/Port-strike-averted-in-eastern-US-for-now.-Is-labor-starting-to-claw-back

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