If the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) Local 1410 and CSA Equipment Company, a stevedoring provider at the Port of Mobile, do not reach an agreement by midnight on October 20, the 800 or so dockworkers represented by the ILA will begin strike action. The union members turned down a third company offer last month.
Workers have been without a contract since October 2018. They turned down two earlier offers, in October 2020 and April 2021.
Mark Bass, president of Local 1410, said three issues separate the union and company management.
First, union members are looking to gain sole control over line handling. Currently, according to an article on AL.com, union workers cannot tie up vessels handled by non-unionised stevedoring companies, while non-unionised workers can tie up vessels handled by CSA. The union is pushing to handle mooring for all of the ships that CSA unloads.
ILA is also seeking retroactive increases in payments for benefits and pensions since the last contract expired, as well as an increase in the number of assigned workers per unit
This is a photo of APM Terminals, Mobile, AL and an ONE containerized vessel. APM Terminals nor containerized cargo are a part of the mentioned negotiations and should not be imaged within a headline of a potential strike.