DENVER — The US Meat Export Federation (USMEF) recently raised concerns about the ongoing dispute between The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA), which represents workers at ports throughout the East and Gulf Coasts, who recently canceled contract discussions with the terminal operators represented by the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX).

A five-year labor contract between the two parties is scheduled to expire on Sept. 30. The negotiations for the initial new agreement are scheduled to open on June 11, but ILA and USMX have reached a stalemate. One of the sticking points for the ILA is the role of automating additional port services, with the union expressing that it would not return to the bargaining table until issues are resolved.

Dan Halstrom, president and chief executive officer of USMEF, detailed how this impending standstill will hurt the United States and world export markets.

“Sept. 30 sounds like a long way away, but for a complex agreement like this, we’re definitely coming down to crunch time,” Halstrom said. “While the West Coast ports are probably a little bit more critical to our business with all the Asian traffic, the East and Gulf ports are still critical as well for the rest of the world.”

Halstrom added that 45% of US pork exports go through the Gulf and East Coast and 25% to 30% for the beef side.

“While most of these products are frozen, going through the Gulf and East Coast, there is some chilled product, especially on the beef side, going into places like Europe and the Middle East and there’s also beef and pork that goes into Central and South America out of the Gulf,” he stated. “Obviously chilled products are more time sensitive, which makes this even more urgent.”

The urgency of this deal is also crucial because ILA members are not expected to continue moving cargo past the September deadline as they did in previous contract disputes.

“When the West Coast contract negotiations started in 2022, both parties agreed to continue even though they may not get it done by the deadline of the contract,” Halstrom said. “There still was an agreement to work beyond the expiration of the contract. The situation we have now with the Gulf and the East Coast longshoremen is that recently they’ve made it very clear that they’re only going to work up ‘til the deadline of Sept. 30.”