News

Request for early port labor talks ‘encouraging’

The president and CEO of the U.S. Meat Export Federation, Phil Seng, says he’s encouraged by news that West Coast port operators want to begin early negotiations on a contract extension with the longshoremen’s union.

“I’m encouraged by the fact that they want to start talking now—and I think this is something that we need to do so we don’t have the disruptions we had in trade in the recent past,” says Seng.

The port operators have submitted a formal request to the longshoremen’s union to begin early negotiations on a contract extension beyond 2019. Although the union has not yet responded to the request, Seng says an early contract extension would ease international buyers’ concerns about port congestion problems, such as those experienced in 2014 and 2015.

“People starting sourcing other supply sources other than the United States,” he says. “In my meetings in north Asia, especially, there were many concerns about the reliability of the U.S. as a supplier.”

The current West Coast labor contract runs through July 1st of 2019.