CHICAGO, Ill. (Reuters) — Contract talks between U.S. grain exporters and a dock workers’ union remained stalemated last week after the first bargaining session in three months broke down.
A second meeting was cancelled.
No further talks were scheduled between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and three of the four grain companies in the Pacific Northwest Grain Handlers Association: United Grain, Louis Dreyfus and Columbia Grain.
The Cargill-CHS joint venture TEMCO reached a tentative contract agreement with the ILWU in February.
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The ILWU wants the other three companies to consider implementing the terms of the TEMCO contract.
“It’s pure greed that’s stopping these profitable foreign grain merchants from reaching a win-win agreement with workers as their American counterpart TEMCO has done,” said ILWU international president Robert McEllrath.
The companies are insisting on work-rule changes that they say would improve efficiency and put them on a more level playing field with rival exporters in the region.
A previous contract between the union and the Grain Handlers Association, which represent six of the nine grain export elevators in the region, expired in September.
Elevators in the U.S. Pacific Northwest ship nearly half of U.S. wheat exports and a quarter of other grain and oilseed exports every year.
