The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) have agreed to take a 72-hour break from negotiations on a new coast-wide contract while the ILWU attends to an unrelated negotiation taking place in the Pacific Northwest.
During this break, starting at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, July 8, through 8 a.m. on Friday, July 11, the parties have agreed to extend the previous six-year contract, which expired last week.
The PMA and ILWU are negotiating a new contract covering nearly 20,000 longshore workers at 29 West Coast ports.
Unionized truckers at the Port of Vancouver are threatening a reprise of their strike staged last March if the port fails to contain non-union competition. As reported here yesterday, truckers in Southern California have also been a concern to shippers seeking stability on the West Coast.