Jose Ayala has been promoted to director of labor relations for Crowley Maritime Corporation. Ayala will remain domiciled in Jacksonville and continue reporting to Steve Demeroutis, Crowley's vice president of labor relations.

In his new position, Ayala is responsible for all labor relations activities for the East Coast/Caribbean terminal operations including grievance handling, negotiations, contract administration, compliance resolution and relationship building with Crowley's union representatives and personnel.

"We are proud to have Jose taking a lead role within our labor relations department," said Demeroutis. "He has a background focused on collaborative work between union and management and is a great asset to our team."

Ayala joined Crowley in 2009 as intermodal manager in Jacksonville before being promoted to representative, labor relations. Prior to that he served as president of the Teamsters for five years in San Juan and two years as vice president. Ayala also spent 12 years with Crowley in the late 1980s-90s in barge operations.