ILA, USMX announce tentative agreement

The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and United States Maritime Alliance (USMX), which represents 14 major ports from Boston to Miami and along the Gulf Coast from Mobile, Alabama, to Houston, have announced they have reached tentative agreement on all items for a new six-year master contract. Both parties also have agreed to continue to operate under the current contract until the union can meet with its full Wage Scale Committee to schedule a ratification vote and USMX members can ratify the terms of the final contract.

Details of the new tentative agreement will not be released to allow ILA rank-and-file members and USMX members to review and approve the final document.

“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 sides say 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 coasts ports—making them safer and more efficient and creating the capacity they need to keep our supply chains strong.”

The ILA and USMX describe the agreement as a “win-win,” saying it “creates ILA jobs, supports American consumers and businesses and keeps the American economy the key hub of the global marketplace.”

Automation has been the sticking point in contract negotiations, which the ILA said had “broken down” in mid-November of last year.

In an early December 2024 essay written by ILA Executive Vice President Dennis A. Dagget, he says, “At the center of this impasse is the employers’ push to expand the use of semiautomated rail-mounted gantry cranes. The reality is that 95 percent of the work performed by RMGs is fully automated. This isn’t about safety or productivity—it’s about job elimination.”

Dagget credits President-elect Trump's support for helping the ILA to secure the contract, citing a face-to-face meeting at Mar-a-Lago in Florida Dec. 12, 2024, that included Dagget's son and ILA Executive Vice President Dennis A. Daggett.

“President Trump clearly demonstrated his unwavering support for our ILA union and longshore workers with his statement 'heard round the world' backing our position to protect American longshore jobs against the ravages of automated terminals,” the ILA president says. “President Trump’s bold stance helped prevent a second coastwide strike at ports from Maine to Texas that would have occurred on Jan. 15, 2024, if a tentative agreement was not reached.”

The ILA says that in the presence of the Daggets, President Trump spoke by telephone to USMX officials to express his support for the ILA before posting on “Truth Social” announcing his support for the ILA: 

“There has been a lot of discussion having to do with ‘automation on United States docks,' I’ve studied automation and know just about everything there is to know about it. The amount of money saved is nowhere near the distress, hurt and harm it causes for American workers, in this case, our longshoremen. Foreign companies have made a fortune in the U.S. by giving them access to our markets. They shouldn’t be looking for every last penny knowing how many families are hurt.”