Ports seek order to force dockworkers to bargaining table as strike looms at East and Gulf ports

AP Business Writer

DETROIT (AP) — With a strike deadline looming, the group representing East and Gulf Coast ports is asking a federal agency to make the Longshoremen’s union come to the bargaining table to negotiate a new contract. The U.S. Maritime Alliance says it filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board alleging that the International Longshoremen’s Association is not bargaining in good faith. The alliance said in a statement Thursday that it filed the charge “due to the ILA’s repeated refusal to come to the table and bargain on a new master contract.” The union says it has communicated with the alliance, which continues to make an inadequate wage offer.