The International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) has announced that port workers in 36 ports along the US Atlantic and Gulf coasts could go on strike on 1 October.
The affected ports, among them the ports of New York and New Jersey, Savannah, Charleston, Jacksonville and Baltimore, handle roughly 60 per cent of total US shipping traffic.
This ILA's announcement follows the breakdown of negotiations on the new Master Contract, which is set to expire on 30 September 2024. The likelihood of a strike and the potential duration will be contingent upon the outcome of subsequent negotiations.
Based in North Bergen, New Jersey, the ILA represents 85,000 workers across the East and Gulf Coasts. The union is demanding sizable wage increases for its members as well as protection from job-killing automation.
Dennis A. Daggett, Executive Vice President of the ILA, commented: "From Searsport, Maine to Brownsville, Texas, we are about to engage in one of the toughest battles our union has faced in decades." The last ILA strike took place in 1977 and lasted 44 days.
A prolonged strike would severely affect European paper and board deliveries to the US.
According to AF&PA statistics, European suppliers shipped 1.2 million t of paper and board to the US in the first half of 2002. The most important grades are printing and writing paper (492,000 t) and boxboard (412,000 t).
In the same period, US mills exported 842,000 tof pulp and 600,000 t of paper and board to Europe, including 293,000 t of kraftliner.
This article was altered on 25 September.
