A New Six-Year Master Contract covering 14,500 Waterfront Workers who are represented by the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) has been overwhelming approved by ILA Members in a Ratification Vote conducted at Ports on the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf Coasts, it was announced today (Wednesday, April 10th).

The ILA negotiated the Master Contract with the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX), an Alliance of Container Carriers, Direct Employers and Port Associations serving the East and Gulf Coasts.  The Settlement ends more than a year of Negotiations between Employers and the ILA. With the assistance of the Offices of the Federal Mediation & Conciliation Services, the ILA and USMX negotiated well beyond the Original Contract Deadline of September 30th (2012), agreeing to a Series of Extensions to Keep Cargo Moving and Bargaining continuing rather than engage in a Devastating Strike or Lock-Out.  A few ILA Locals were still reporting results to ILA Headquarters late Tuesday evening, but Overwhelming Ratification was already secured based on the majority of ILA Locals that had reported results, Union Officials said. 

Much attention throughout Negotiations was also paid to the Pending Local Agreement in the Port of New York and New Jersey between the ILA and New York Shipping Association. Union-Represented Workers up and down the Coast voted for both the Master Contract and their respective Local Agreements and ILA Members in New York and New Jersey coupled their acceptance of the Master Contract with solid approval of the Local Agreement, by a better than 3-to-1 margin, Union Officials said.

In the Master Contract, ILA Members won handsome gains in the New Six-Year Agreement, including Wage Increases totaling $3-an-hour spread out over the Life of the Agreement that will, by the Final Year of the New Contract, bring their Hourly Rate of Pay to $35-an-hour. Lower-Tiered Workers, meanwhile, will enjoy an even Higher Wage Percentage Increase as their Pay Progression Scale was shortened to Six Years from Nine Years in the New Agreement. Thus, a new ILA Member earning a Base Pay of $20-an-hour at the start of the Six-Year Contract will increase to $35-an-hour by the end of the Sixth Year of the Contract. 

"On behalf of ILA Members and Officers at all Ports, we're thrilled this Master Contract was ratified by an overwhelming margin," said ILA President Harold Daggett, who served as ILA Chief Negotiator at the Negotiations for the first time since he was elected International President in July 2011. "We all worked very hard, achieved Landmark Improvements and Protected our Members and our Union for many years." 

To read the rest of this Labor News Report, go to:  www.ilaunion.org/news_ratification_vote.html.