Encouraging news on the shipping front for agriculture, as the feuding parties in the longshoremans’ dispute along the Gulf and East coasts are moving forward to ratify a new contract. Mike Steenhoek, Executive Director of the Soy Transportation Coalition, says the recent vote out of committee bodes well.

“What’s called the Wage Scale Committee of the International Longshoremen Association, about 200 members, voted unanimously to approve the new six-year contract, and so the final step is for the full rank and file membership to vote on the contract that occurs on February 25, and then subsequent to that, the US Maritime Alliance membership will go vote on it. And so hopefully, by the end of February, early March, there will be a new six-year contract, which, again, that’s very important to us, because that provides predictability, additional predictability when it comes to our supply chain.”

Steenhoek, who’s been watching the negotiations closely, says the next step is a vote by the longshoremans’ rank and file on Tuesday, February 25.

“Once the leadership of the two entities came to an agreement, that certainly was reason for optimism. But that, again, you don’t want to count your chickens before they hatch, of course, and so whenever you see the additional steps, affirm the contract, and again, a big notable one was that committee, the wage scale committee, approving it, again, unanimously, that really does bode well for the rank-and-file membership to approve it as well.”

Steenhoek expects both parties to pass the contract, which will be in effect until 2030.

“They obviously didn’t get everything that they wanted the US maritime Alliance, but what they clearly do want, is to have some degree of predictability and tranquility, if you will, over the next six years. So what this would do is, if the two parties do agree to it, which is expected, the benefits of the contract that have been negotiated will be made retroactive to October 1 of 2024, that’s when the new contract was supposed to have been implemented, and then it’ll be a six year contract. So that would then extend the final date of that contract would be September 30 of 2030.”

Predictability and tranquility. Qualities agriculture is seeking on many fronts.