Mediterranean Shipping Co. filed a motion last week with the National Labor Relations Board urging SSA Marine Inc. to assign cold-ironing tasks at the Port of Seattle’s Terminal 5 to the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers has claimed it’s responsible for those tasks. The dispute in Seattle is among the main reasons that contract negotiations for all West Coast dockworkers have dragged on for months, and the filing is noteworthy because it lays out what’s at stake for MSC. ILWU negotiations representing 22,000 dockworkers began on May 10 and workers have been without a contract now since July 1.
