Negotiations between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) are progressing.
The labor union and employers association have reached a tentative agreement on terms for health benefits, subject to agreement on other issues in the negotiations, they said in a July 26 joint news release.
Details of the agreement are currently unknown, as the parties have said they’ve agreed not to publicly disclose the terms of the tentative agreement while negotiations on other aspects of a potential labor contract continue.
“Maintenance of health benefits is an important part of the contract being negotiated between employers represented by the PMA and workers represented by the ILWU,” the two said in a joint statement.
The contract covers more than 22,000 longshore workers at 29 U.S. West Coast ports. The previous agreement expired at 5 p.m. on July 1.
Talks began on May 10 and as of publication time, continue.
Each side has been quiet about the topics being covered in the talks, but experts have said they would likely encompass safety, wages and technology.