Contract-renewal talks for about 15,000 workers at the U.S.’s busiest ports on the West Coast are going to be a “bumpy process” amid the protracted congestion affecting those operations, according to the head logistics at A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S, the world’s largest container liner.
“I hope for swift resolution but some of the issues will take some time to settle between the parties,” Vincent Clerc said Monday at the TPM22 Conference produced by The Journal of Commerce in Long Beach, California. “The only advice I have for customers is you have to hope for the best but you also have to plan for the worst.”
Though negotiations are expected to start as soon as next month, the current six-year contract between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and their employers, represented by the Pacific Maritime Association, expires July 1. The PMA’s members include 70 ocean carriers and terminals operating at 29 West Coast ports.
