Port of Baltimore celebrates as union secures five year pay hike
BALTIMORE -- Cheers of victory could be heard across the Port of Baltimore Thursday when it was first reported by WJZ's Tara Lynch that the dock worker strike was suspended.
"I'm happy for them so they can get back to work and take care of their families. I mean they've been out here for 3 days around the clock, so it's a good thing for everybody it's a good thing for the state, the port, and all of the members here and all of their families," Scott Cowan, President of the ILA's Local 333 said.
They say this deal is a good thing because it will increase worker pay by 61.5% over the next years effective immediately, the union will continue to negotiate with the United States Maritime Alliance until January 15 over lingering disagreements about healthcare and automation. Although a strike could restart in January, union leaders say it's unlikely.
"They don't have to worry anymore, possibly losing their cars or their homes or anything like that, you know we're just coming off a major maritime catastrophe with the bridge collapse, we were out of work for a couple months, now we're out of work for a few more days…we're very excited to be back," Cowan said.
"We have always relied on the Port of Baltimore given the nature of our business. We have always been thankful for the service and the quality they have already given to Pompeian," Salim Benjelloun, VP of Operations at Pompeian Oils said.
The impact of this victory for union dock workers trickles down to businesses like Pompeian Oils, who Benjelloun says had a contingency plan for the strike, as they had a heads up compared to the catastrophic collapse of the key bridge. This time, he says they avoided major interruptions to their food service business.
"If the strike had lasted longer, we would be talking about much(many) more consequences to our business and any food business around," Benjelloun said.
The Port of Baltimore released a statement to WJZ saying in part, "...When strikes occur, even for a short time, the impacts are significant. The port industry is one of our nation's leading job generators and is critically important to our national supply chain. We're delighted to have the Port of Baltimore working again."
"The cost of everything is up, these folks worked during Covid night and day getting good to market, it's so important for them to finally get it on the backend," ILA Local 333 President Cowan said.
Both sides will continue to work through unresolved issues surrounding automation and healthcare until January 15, but for now, we do know wages are going up for our nation's dockworkers.