Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su spent her last weeks in office helping the International Longshoremen’s Association and the US Maritime Alliance avoid a potential strike at major East and West Coast ports next week.
The union, which represents 47,000 cargo handlers at Eastern US and Gulf Coast ports, had threatened to walk off the job on Jan. 15 if the maritime alliance didn’t agree to include protections from automation in their next contract.
“I’ve been in touch with both sides,” Su said in an interview with Bloomberg Law on Jan. 8 hours before the parties reached a tentative agreement. “They’re bargaining. They’re doing what they’re supposed to be doing,” she said.
The Maritime Alliance and the union struck a tentative deal on a new six-year contract late Wednesday, it said in a statement. The deal would protect union jobs and “establishes a framework for implementing technologies that will create more jobs while modernizing East and Gulf coast ports,” the Maritime Alliance said.
ILA leaders restarted negotiations with Maritime Alliance earlier this week. The parties hadn’t bargained since mid-November, with the union leaving the table over the use of automated cranes at port terminals.
This is the second time the union has threatened to walk off the job in recent months. In early October, the union went on a three day strike before reaching a tentative agreement that provided significant wage increases and suspended the walkout until mid-January.
The work stoppage had threatened to cause supply chain headaches just days before President-elect Donald Trump is set to take office.
Trump met with ILA leaders in December, where according to the union, Trump expressed “strong support” for their battle “over job-killing automation.”
“I’ve studied automation, and know just about everything there is to know about it,” Trump later wrote on the Truth Social website. “The amount of money saved is nowhere near the distress, hurt, and harm it causes for American Workers, in this case, our Longshoremen.”
When asked if she had briefed the incoming Trump administration on the talks, Su noted that Trump met with ILA leaders, “so he’s obviously engaged and paying attention.”
Su has played a prominent role in helping resolve major labor disputes in her time as acting leader of the US Department of Labor, including during the longshoreman’s strike last October and during negotiations at the West Coast ports in 2023.
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