b'APRIL 18 - MAY 15, 2022NORTH AMERICAS TRANSPORTATION & LOGISTICS N EWSPAPER 11ILWUS Adams: We willPACIFIC COAST PORTS 2022get an agreementBy Stas Margaronis, AJOTWillieAdams,presidentcent of our nations GDP with InternationalLongshoreandcountless job opportunities and WarehouseUnion(ILWU),with cargo coming in as never saidheexpectedacon- before.Thecontractwillnot tract agreement between thebe resolved by the end of the ILWU and the Pacific Mari- currentagreementsexpiring time Association (PMA) willso there is no reason to get ner-be reached but will take time:vous there. The ILWU has not We will get an agreement. Itgone on strike since the early takes both sides. Right now,1970s. The rank-and-file mem-weregettingready.Some- bers take a great deal of pride in time in May, were going towhat they are doing, and they sit down, were going to getwant to keep Americas econ-an agreement. omy moving but they need to However,Adamsurgedbe paid what theyre worth.that dock workers contribu-tionsbegivenfairconsid- ilwU c ontRibUtionSeration:InsteadofpeopleSeroka introduced Interna-writing(and)sayingthingstional Longshore and Warehouse likeyouregoingtothrow(AGREEMENTcontinued thebabyoutwiththebath- on page 18)water, and that this or that is goingtohappentheyought to be talking about the posi-tive things out of COVIDall the good things that have comeoutofthis.Somuch of the focus has been on theTime to Transformports,theinfrastructure,so manygoodthingsthatare goingtobenefitAmericans and Americanworkers. And we were there when the Presi- New rail infrastructure, innovative data solutions, moving to 24/7 operationsdent signed his Infrastructurethe Port of Long Beach is working to meet todays challenges while preparing Bill, isnt this what we want to leave?something betterfor tomorrow. We are the Port of Choice.for the next generation?Willie Adams, president of ILWUAdamsspokeduringa media briefing hosted by the PortofLosAngelesApril 12, 2022.In an interview with AJOT, Gene Seroka, executive direc-tor, Port of Los Angeles said, hewashopefulthatcontract negotiations between the Inter-national Longshore and Ware-houseUnionandthePacific MaritimeAssociationwill resultinacontractforU.S. WestCoastportswithouta repeatofthedisruptionsthat occurred during the 2014-2015 negotiations:I believe there is reason to have optimism about the resolution of contract nego-tiations between the ILWU and the PMA. They do have sea-soned negotiators on both sides of the table. Each understands whats at stake with respect to theAmericaneconomy.The twenty-nine ports from Wash-ington State down to San Diego representabouttwelveper-'