Healthcare confirmed in ongoing port worker contract negotiations
Good morning! National Milk Chocolate Day may have arrived. Time for a sweet treat after work? 🍫
The International Longshore and Warehouse Union and Pacific Maritime Association have been negotiating a new work contract for approximately 22,000 workers since May 10th. The previous contract expired on July 1st, leaving the situation in limbo as the two organizations scramble to broker an agreement that satisfies each party. While it has been slow-going, the news of a tentative healthcare deal this week signals progress. It’s the first agreed-upon factor of the contract that the two parties have announced since the contract expiration date earlier this month.
Check out today’s featured article from Supply Chain Dive to read about the west coast longshore workers updated healthcare benefits. Will this breakthrough lead to a finalized contract in the upcoming weeks?
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Featured Article:
Longshore workers, employers reach tentative deal on healthcare benefits - Supply Chain Dive
“West Coast port employers and the union representing their longshore workers on Tuesday announced they had reached a tentative deal on health benefits as part of ongoing contract talks.”
Water Cooler Topics
📦 In a Q2 earning call, UPS CFO Brian Newman and CEO Carol Tomé announced their project, “Total Service Plan” - a plan with a mission to reduce late departures and deliveries to customers. The initiative includes customized routes for more than 60,000 individual UPS drivers that will reduce any time spent idling in the trucks. The plan, meant to rival competitor FedEx’s “Network 2.0 Plan”, should improve operation without adding any more pieces to its network. This also comes on the heels of a parcel volume decline since 2021.
🔥 Resilinc, a supply chain resilience firm based in California, has released data showing that there has been a 46% increase in supply chain disruptions since this time in 2021. The data, which tracked over 8,000 events spread across the supply chain of varying degrees of stress, pulled the pertinent information from the company’s AI-run platform, Eventwatch. The top events of supply chain disruption in 2022 thus far are factory fires, mergers and acquisitions, and leadership transitions. North America tops the charts of supply chain disruptions, absorbing 40% of the total worldwide alerts categories by Eventwatch for disruption.
🔋 General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. are working overtime to secure deals for key materials needed to develop batteries for electric cars. Lithium, nickel, cobalt, and other key ingredients in EV batteries are now in high demand, but short supply - stunted by the previous lack of investment and Covid-19 restrictions for labor and trade. China, the leader in the refining and manufacturing of these materials, has other nations concerned due to the political tensions growing in the Asian country. Automakers are being propelled into brokering quick agreements to secure the materials needed to create more electric vehicles for the market.
Study shows more than half of employees would take a pay cut to work at a company that shares their values
CNBC and Momentive joined forces to conduct a survey that resulted in more than half of U.S. employees stating they would be willing to take home a smaller paycheck if it meant they got to work somewhere that shared their values. About half of those surveyed said that they wouldn’t consider working somewhere that didn’t share their values, regardless of the paycheck associated.
Companies have faced significant pressure to take political stances and those surveyed were split down the middle on whether they wanted businesses to speak out on social issues.
FRA to increase locomotive crew member minimum requirement for safety precautions
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has announced its plans to take steps to strengthen train safety and reduce any risk to crew members, the environment, and the public. The proposal includes requiring a minimum of two operators for over-the-road operations and solidifying a uniform standard for the whole nation, which currently operates under various requirements for each state.
Over the years, train crew sizes have reduced due to technological advancements.
Safety 🦺
Chameleon Carriers Threaten Our Safety - Logistics Viewpoints
“The nation’s highways can be a dangerous place.”
Safe Driver Apprenticeship Pilot Program begins today - Back The Truck Up
“The floodgates have opened for the controversial program aimed at dealing with ‘the driver shortage’.”
Covid-19 😷
Makers of COVID tests shift focus as testing wanes - Supply Chain Dive
“Small diagnostic companies that won big testing contracts earlier in the pandemic are now seeing COVID-19 testing shift to the home.”
Owner-Operators 🚛
“The protests were in response to the United States Supreme Court’s having denied review—or Certiorari—of the Circuit’s reversal against the injunction of AB5 (Assembly Bill 5) in California, a law governing owner-operators that potentially could be very disruptive to trucking operations in the nation’s most populous state.”
Landstar advises California owner-operators move out of state due to AB5 - Transport Dive
“Landstar is telling its owner-operators in California that they will need to relocate out of state if they want to remain independent contractors with the carrier — or pursue other options — due to the looming implementation of labor law AB5.”
Inflation 💸
“Walmart expects strong same store US sales in its Q2, but consumers are avoiding purchases outside of food and gasoline, leading to lower profits and too much inventory in many categories.”
Tech 📟
Tech OEMs battle it out in the semiconductor value chain - Resilinc
“For high-tech OEMs such as Apple, Samsung, Sony, Dell, and other top makers of electronics gear, the first half of 2022 has been a wild ride.”
Tech 'critical to modern supply chains' - BP's Wright - Supply Chain Digital
“Procurement Magazine, Supply Chain Digital and Bizclik Media Group returned to the Tobacco Dock (London) to host our second Procurement & Supply Chain LIVE.”
Compliance 📋
The Jones Act Is Forcing Puerto Rico to Overpay for Energy - Cato.org
“Puerto Rico’s electrical grid is (once again) on the brink of a crisis.”
Ports 🚢
‘Significant shift in vessel calls’ to Port of Savannah helps drive record year - Freight Waves
“Georgia Ports Authority’s container volumes up 8% year over year to 5.76 million TEUs.”
Some US ports seeing record volumes, more truck traffic - The Trucker
“U.S. ports are seeing a booming business right now, with at least three seeing record cargo volumes.”
Trucker’s Lounge 🧢
Women In Trucking Association Announces its July 2022 Member of the Month - WomenInTrucking
“The Women In Trucking Association (WIT) has announced Nona Larson as its July 2022 Member of the Month.”
Leases & Loans 💰
“A record 27.2% of total federal contracting funds were awarded to small businesses in fiscal 2021, according to just-released data from the Small Business Administration.”
Trade & Border Issues 🗺
Ukraine’s grain is ready to go. But ships aren’t. Why? Risk - AP News
“Shipping companies are not rushing to export millions of tons of grain trapped in Ukraine, despite a breakthrough deal to provide safe corridors through the Black Sea.”
Business Strategy 💡
Evaluating your transportation management strategy - Supply Chain Management Review
“You are far from the only one considering a shift. “
How Food and Beverage Distributors Tackle Authentication - Food Logistics
“Achieving end-to-end supply chain visibility through authenticity tools can help food and beverage manufacturers identify problem spots within their supply chain and build trust with their customer base.”
Long Road Ahead for Companies to Realize their ESG Goals - MHL News
“Some barriers include the lack of clear decision-making and accountability as well as the lack of the right culture.”
The 'messy middle' is getting messier - Fleet Maintenance
“The 'messy middle'—the time between now and a zero-emission future—has become more complicated as more alternatives to diesel enter the market.”
Stoyan Kenderov on Preparing Your Business for Recession - Small Business Trends
“It’s nice when everything comes together for a video like it did with this one.”
Management with intent - Seth’s Blog
“When Frederic Taylor brought the world Scientific Management a hundred years ago, it changed what it meant to run a factory.”
Warehousing 📦
The Rise of On-Demand Warehousing in a Volatile Property Market - Supply Chain Brain
“Nearly three years after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the industrial sector is still facing persistent supply chain and logistics challenges.”
What Are the Different Types of Careers in Warehousing? - All Things Supply Chain
“Warehouses are a critical element in modern logistics and supply chain management.”
Fuel ⛽️
Weekly diesel average sees steepest decline since 2008 - Logistics Management
“The national diesel average—at $5.268 per gallon—fell 16.4 cents, marking the steepest annual decline going back to the week of October 27, 2008, when it fell 19.4-cents, to $3.288.”
American Politics 🇺🇸
Semiconductor Subsidy Mischief - Cato.org
“In the coming weeks, Congress could pass a bill showering massive subsidies on the semiconductor industry.”
Regulations ⚖️
Ocean Shipping Reform Act: Detention and Demurrage Disconnects - G Captain
“In the recently enacted Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022 (OSRA 2022 or ‘The Shipping Act,’ for short), there is a great deal of attention on the infamous ‘D & D’.”
Driver Issues 🚛
FMCSA opens up carrier registrations for under-21 driver pilot program - Fleet Owner
“Up to 1,000 fleets can participate in the Safe Driver Apprenticeship Pilot, allowing up to 3,000 younger CDL-holders to operate interstate while FMCSA studies the ramifications of expanding the national driver pool.”
Researchers to Study Truck Parking in Iowa, Wisconsin - TT News
“Researchers from the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI), the University of Wisconsin-Madison and ParkUnload are conducting a truck parking pilot study to better understand how truck drivers use existing parking spaces and to test the benefits of using a mobile parking app.”
Research group seeks input from truckers on driver-facing cameras - Landline Media
“The American Transportation Research Institute is seeking driver input regarding the use driver-facing cameras.”
Diversity 🤜🤛
WIT Index: Women climb to 13% of driver workforce - The Trucker
“The percentage of professional drivers who are female has grown to 13.7% in 2022, an increase of more than 3% since 2019.”
Electric Vehicles 🔋
Edmunds: 5 electric SUVs for almost any budget - AP News
“In the early days of the modern electric vehicle or EV, your choices were largely limited to a few range-compromised models or an expensive Tesla on the high end.”
Quote of the Day:
“Education costs money. But then so does ignorance.”
– Sir Claus Moser, British statistician
The Workday Dash is an aggregation of articles regarding the transportation logistics, trucking, and supply chain industries for July 31, 2025, from iLevel Logistics Inc.