What’s the stalemate about?

Two major sticking points are wages and automation. On wages, neither side has made their demands or offers public.

A statement from union president Harold Daggett suggested the union may be seeking a $5-an-hour increase in each year of a six-year agreement, raising the top hourly wage from $39 to $69 by the end of the contract.

Wage increases under the current contract, signed in 2018, were far more modest, with only $1-an-hour increases in four of the six years. That contract, which expires Monday, spanned the pandemic, when dockworkers stayed on the job, and months of soaring inflation.