Dockworkers on Thursday ratified a new port agreement for 1,800 longshoremen and their work on certain noncontainerized cargo at the port of Hampton Roads, VA.
On June 10, ILA members rejected a labor agreement that would have meant an average pay cut of about 36 percent – to $16 an hour – for break-bulk work but would have given hundreds of idled workers a chance to get back on the job.
The contract approved Thursday will cut break-bulk wages but not as much as the proposal rejected in June, said an ILA spokesperson. Further details of the agreement were not available late Thursday.
The new contract will make Hampton Roads more competitive, particularly with southeastern U.S. ports, said the president of the Hampton Roads Shipping Association, which represents the terminals, stevedores and other companies that employ ILA labor.