USMX Continues Its Weak Publicity Campaign Against ILA With “Unfair Labor Practices” Suit; ILA Says Foreign Shipping Companies Exploiting American Longshoremen For Big Profits They Export Overseas Is An Unfair Labor Practice
NORTH BERGEN, NJ (September 26, 2024) Continuing its weak publicity campaign designed to fool the American public that they care for the longshore workers who help earn them billions of dollars and are serious about negotiating a new Master Contract Agreement, United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) last night filed an “unfair labor practice” charge against the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA).
The ILA regards the suit as another publicity stunt by the employer group, and countered that foreign owned companies, represented by USMX set up shop at American ports, earn billions of dollars in revenues and profits, take those profits out of country, and fail to adequately compensate the ILA longshore workforce for their labor are engaging in a real “unfair labor practice” and have been getting away with for decades.
The ILA, with a total membership of 85,000 longshore workers employed at ports on the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts; major U.S. rivers; Great Lakes region, Puerto Rico, Eastern Canada and the Bahamas, added that USMX should have brought charges against their own members who were unprepared, for exploratory Master Contract talks with the ILA when the two sides first met over two years ago.
“USMX filing these charges four days before the expiration of the current Master Contract clearly illustrates what poor negotiating partners they have been,” the ILA said. “If it wasn’t for the ILA engaging in serious and productive negotiations, most of the local agreements would not have been settled over the past year.”