Manweller urges an end to labor dispute at Puget Sound ports, local businesses paying the price

Manweller urges an end to labor dispute at Puget Sound ports, local businesses paying the price

Local businesses in the 13th Legislative District are paying the price for a long labor dispute at the Seattle and Tacoma ports. Rep. Matt Manweller has contacted the federal delegation representing the region and is urging anyone else feeling the impacts to contact the delegation as well as the governor’s office. 

“I have been contacted by some of our areas biggest exporters of hay, fruit and other agricultural products desperate to find a solution to this dispute. Their perishable goods are arriving on the docks in Puget Sound and basically rotting,” said Manweller, R-Ellensburg. “The Asian customers who normally buy products from our district are looking elsewhere to find these goods because there does not appear to be an end in sight to this ongoing battle.” 

The Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) and its employee union, the International Longshoreman and Warehouse Union (ILWU), have been in negotiations since May and the contract was up for renewal on July 1. 

Many employers have stopped shipping their products to the ports until the dispute is settled. Employers do not want to let them just sit and rot. Producers can also get a reputation for selling poor or spoiled product costing them business in the future.

"The timing of this cannot be worse. The holiday season is approaching and there is a significant trickle-down effect,” said Manweller, ranking Republican on the state House Labor and Workforce Development Committee. “To address their potential losses producers and employers in my district have started laying off employees. It may be a very bleak Christmas and holiday season for many unless we start to see some urgency in the negotiations.”

Manweller is requesting anyone impacted by the port dispute to contact the governor’s office and the federal delegation representing the 13th District because he wants to make sure they realize the magnitude of the contract dispute.

“We are talking about people losing their jobs at the worst time of the year, and a significant loss to the import and export business for Washington state,” Manweller said.

Approximately 850,000 jobs in the state involve production of goods from apples to airplanes as well as transportation, handling and shipping of goods to other states or countries.

For more information about Rep. Manweller, visit: www.representativemattmanweller.com.

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