Jacksonville Port Authority Chief Commercial Officer Roy Schleicher said he hopes Hanjin Shipping Co. Ltd. and the longshoremen’s union will reach a finalized agreement by the end of next month.
Schleicher said Hanjin executives told him earlier this week that they are “100 percent” interested in moving forward their planned $208 million terminal at Dames Point, which is expected to open in early 2014. He was unsure whether the labor agreement had to be voted on by local or regional members of the International Longshoremen’s Association.
ILA and Hanjin reached a tentative labor agreement in January on manning the highly-automated container terminal. The authority needs to choose a new cruise terminal since the existing terminal is where the Hanjin facility will be, but it won’t do so until the South Korean shipping company reaches an agreement with the ILA.