“Today the PMA and ILWU being their most important negotiations in decades. “Forty years ago, the PMA and ILWU came together to sign one of the most significant labor pacts of our time, the Modernization and Mechanization (M&M) Agreement. That agreement ushered in the era of containerized shipping that has enabled West Coast ports to become a world leader in international trade, generating economic activity of nearly three-quarters of a billion dollars a year-roughly equal to the GDP of Spain or Canada. “It is time for a new M&M agreement for the 21st century. The West Coast ports have become a bottleneck in the global supply chain. Growing congestion on the terminals, if unaddressed, will stifle economic growth.