International Longshoremen’s Association members will vote April 9 on a landmark contract that was starting to look impossible without a strike.
Final agreement by the ILA and United States Maritime Alliance didn’t come easily. Some of USMX’s carrier members made an unsuccessful last-minute appeal for additional concessions. ILA officials said those changes would have been a deal-breaker and probably would have triggered the union’s first coastwide strike since 1977.
ILA President Harold Daggett said union delegates “achieved a great contract for the rank-and-file members we represent. Our union worked hard for over a year to bring home a landmark agreement that I am sure our members will ratify.”
