Shippers held “hostage” by ILWU once again?

Indications given by a splinter group of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union suggest that shippers should not assume the tentative contract with the Pacific Maritime Association is a “done deal.”

The Transport Workers Solidarity Committee – the most radical wing of the union – plans to stage a meeting outside of ILWU headquarters in San Francisco next Monday to persuade members to reject the pending agreement which provides generous wages, salaries, and benefits.

Meanwhile, other industry stakeholders will convene that day in San Francisco for Navis World 2015, where they’ll hear an acclaimed “hostage negotiator” speak to concerns about the viability of West Coast ports and terminals.

In a flyer resonating with neo-Marxist vernacular, the Solidarity Committee warns that the working agreement with the PMA will “gut the ILWU’s coastwide power and bury the last militant union in the U.S.”

If true, hostage shippers who have not by now abandoned the West Coast, may greet such a fate with some satisfaction.