Dockworkers Readying for Strike
By 
A couple of months ago, the Biden administration worked out a temporary deal between the International Longshoremen’s Association and the east coast shippers to avoid a strike. But one issue remains intractable–the companies want to engage in mass automation and the ILA are fighting for their jobs and lives. So they are getting ready to strike again and let’s just say I don’t exactly see the Trump administration doing the work to make the ILA happy, even if that union has happily played footsie with him for a long time.
EVER since metal boxes big enough to hold 50 refrigerators revolutionised shipping nearly 70 years ago, dockworkers have fought to defend the importance of skilled labour in global commerce.
Yet technological advances in robotics and automation continue to threaten their roles, especially in US ports.
The International Longshoremen’s Association, or ILA — the 47,000-member union that represents cargo handlers at every major Eastern US and Gulf Coast port — is threatening to walk off the job on Jan 15 as its leaders seek new protections from automation.
Union leaders and the group that represents their employers are set to resume contract talks on Jan 7 even as the threat of a strike looms.
A strike would pose economic risks for the country and a political dilemma for President-elect Donald Trump just days before his inauguration.
The longshoremen — who play a key role in the global supply chain — are negotiating with the United States Maritime Alliance, or USMX, a group of shipping lines and terminal operators that employ them to load and unload container ships.
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The ILA’s president is Harold Daggett, a third-generation member of the union and a Navy veteran who grew up in Woodside, Queens. He’s a tough-talking negotiator who previously helped ink two six-year deals with the USMX.
Daggett has threatened to take his campaign against port automation global by boycotting companies that install machines that replace labour, no matter which country they’re in. Dennis Daggett, Harold’s son and his ILA deputy, wrote in a Facebook post in early December that “this is a pivotal moment in our history.”
The Daggetts are up against David Adam, CEO of the USMX, which represents more than 30 port businesses including Maersk, MSC and COSCO. The two sides had previously negotiated 10 straight contracts without a strike.
In the event of a strike, companies should expect delays in cargo and higher freight rates, some of which could be passed on to American consumers through increased prices.
Even though there is no way in the hell the ILA is ever going to be some leader in some sort of “resistance” to Trump, I wouldn’t mind seeing massive strikes start to bring the administration to its knees and demonstrating once again to Americans what happens when you vote for fascists.