We’re on to round 3 of the labor negotiations between the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) representing the East Coast and Gulf ports. The negotiations were first supposed to be completed by September 30, 2012. Both sides agreed to extend negotiations to December 29, 2012. When the two sides could not come to a full agreement towards the end of last year, they made an 11th hour agreement to further extend negotiations. We are now again running close to the 11th hour of the latest extension deadline (Feburary 6, 2013). We have less than a week.

I have not heard any positive or negative news, but this uncertainty is definitely unsettling.

Hoping we will have good news to share soon!

-Jimmy Ting

jimmyting@gwlcorp.com