Update from the International Longshoremen’s Association:

The leadership of the International Longshoremen’s Association, AFL-CIO urges all ILA members in the Port of New York and New Jersey to accept orders and return to work immediately.

“We have heard your voices, we have heard your concerns, and we have taken action on your behalf,” ILA leaders communicated to their members early Friday evening.

“We urge all ILA members to return to work and will continue to report to you on the progress we make resolving all concerns of our hard working and dedicated ILA workforce,” said ILA leaders.

From an article titled ‘More than 1,000 Longshoremen walk off the job at NY/NJ ports,’ CBS News reports:

“The ILA and the New York Shipping Association – our employers, it’s not just the workers, but also the owners of the companies that generate the jobs and generates money for the economy – both sides have been fighting the Waterfront Commission, especially in the last five years, over the right to bring new workers on, the right to operate their ports the way they think they should be operated,” Jim McNamara of the International Longshoreman’s Association told 1010 WINS. “They’ve had enough, they told me they’re taking this action to demonstrate their displeasure.”

The dispute between the longshoremen and the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor has been ongoing for some time.

“The Waterfront Commission continues to interfere with both management and labor,” McNamara said.

“An agency that’s supposed to just license longshoremen has now continued to interfere, taking away jobs from longshore workers, interfering in the collective bargaining agreement,” said McNamara.

More at CBS