Dockworkers reach extended agreement
January 9, 2025
By Mike Steenhoek, Executive Director of the Soy Transportation Coalition
Getting soybeans to their foreign destinations via shipping container received some assurances this week.
On Wednesday, the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and the U.S. Maritime Alliance (USMX) announced an agreement on a new six-year contract, which will avert the possibility of a strike on U.S. East and Gulf coast ports.
“We are pleased to announce that ILA and USMX have reached a tentative agreement on a new six-year ILA-USMX Master Contract, subject to ratification, thus averting any work stoppage on Jan. 15, 2025,” the two organizations said in a joint statement. “This agreement protects current ILA jobs and establishes a framework for implementing technologies that will create more jobs while modernizing East and Gulf coast ports – making them safer and more efficient and creating the capacity they need to keep our supply chains strong.”
Strike woes
According to Soy Transportation Coalition (STC) Executive Director Mike Steenhoek, the two sides have agreed to continue operating under the current contract until the ILA can meet with its full Wage Scale Committee and schedule a ratification vote for its members. The USMX members will also need to ratify the contract. Until the members of the two parties have fully ratified the contract, the specific details of the agreement will not be disclosed publicly.
“You will notice from the statement that the agreement ‘establishes a framework for implementing technologies that will create more jobs while modernizing East and Gulf coast ports,’” says Steenhoek. “The adoption of automation and technology was clearly the most contentious issue between the two parties. The ILA has been adamantly opposed to any additional embrace of automation and technology, while the USMX contended that increased automation and technology is essential to allow U.S. ports to be comparable in efficiency with other ports in Europe, Asia and elsewhere. Again, we will not know the details of this agreement until the ratification votes occur.”
The negotiations between the ILA and the USMX relates to the current six-year contract that covers nearly 25,000 dockworkers employed in container and roll-on/roll-off (i.e. automobiles, tractors and other mobile machinery) operations at ports along both the East Coast and Gulf Coast. The current contract has an expiration date of Sept. 30, 2024.
When a new contract had not been achieved by that deadline, the ILA commenced a strike starting on Oct. 1. After three days, the two parties announced the strike would cease due to an agreement on wages and work resumed at the different U.S. ports. The ILA and USMX then agreed to extend the current contract until this month, in order to allow additional time to negotiate remaining issues – particularly the contentious issue of automation and technology, Steenhoek says.
Impact on soybeans
Since bulk soybean and grain export facilities in the Gulf, East Coast, and Great Lakes have a variety of different arrangements for the workforce that loads ships (own company employees, different labor union, etc.), the negotiations between the ILA and the USMX did not present the potential to impact the overwhelming majority of soybean and grain exports from the Gulf or East Coast.
However, it would have impacted the soybeans, soybean meal and other agricultural products that are exported via container. It also would have had a significant impact on chilled or frozen meat, eggs, etc. that are exported from the United States. Of course, the U.S. livestock industry cannot be harmed without simultaneously harming soybean and grain farmers, Steenhoek noted.
Shipments of soybeans via container are of a significant concern for farmers across the country.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), in 2023 alone, 54 million metric tons (mmt) of U.S. soybeans were exported by bulk; 5.8 mmt were exported via containers. Of that 5.8 mmt, approximately half of that was exported via the East and Gulf coasts. The other half was primarily exported via Los Angeles/Long Beach and other West Coast ports.
“Therefore, we were looking at approximately 5-6% of total soybean exports that would have been impacted by a strike on the East and Gulf coasts,” says Steenhoek.
According to the most recent numbers from the USDA, 2023 export of U.S. soybeans via container from the East and Gulf coast ports included:
- Norfolk, Va.: 1,616,854 mmt
- New York/New Jersey: 372,110 metric tons
- Baltimore, Md.: 324,500 metric tons
- Charleston, S.C.: 217,892 metric tons
- Wilmington, N.C.: 47,744 metric tons
- Savannah, Ga.: 43,710 metric tons
- Houston, Texas: 24,758 metric tons
“The STC sincerely appreciates that a long-term agreement has been achieved, which will avert a strike as early as Jan. 16,” says Steenhoek. “Throughout this process, we did not pick sides between the ILA and the USMX, but we most certainly are on the side of American farmers. Having a reliable system of ports is clearly in their best interest.”
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