Dockworkers on the East and Gulf Coasts went on strike, forming picket lines from Massachusetts to Texas, after the International Longshoremen’s Association rejected contract terms offered by port operators.
Photo: Action News Jax
Published on Common Dreams
“We are prepared to fight as long as necessary, to stay out on strike for whatever period of time it takes, to get the wages and protections against automation our ILA members deserve.”
Dockworkers at East and Gulf Coast ports went on strike Tuesday morning, forming picket lines from Massachusetts to Texas.
The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA), the union that represents the 45,000 affected dockworkers, didn’t accept terms offered by the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX), the port operators’ group, and initiated a walkout that began at 12:01 am Tuesday.
It’s the first strike at the three dozen East and Gulf Coast ports since 1977, when dockworkers won major concessions.
The labor dispute centers on the level of pay increase and the degree of automation allowed at the ports.
“We are prepared to fight as long as necessary, to stay out on strike for whatever period of time it takes, to get the wages and protections against automation our ILA members deserve,” ILA President Harold Daggett said in a statement on Tuesday.
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Workers picketed at the ports just after their contract expired at midnight, carrying placards with messages such as: “Automation Hurts Families: ILA Stands For Job Protection”; “No Work Without a Fair Contract”; “Corporate Greed vs. Workers Rights: ILA Demands Fairness!”; and “Fight Automation, Save Jobs: ILA Demands Job Security.”
Daggett spoke to picketers at a terminal in Elizabeth, New Jersey, saying the strike would “go down in history” and referencing his participation in the 1977 strike. He pointed the finger at USMX’s global shipping companies, some of which are based in Europe, saying that they price-gouge their customers—echoing an argument the ILA had made in a statement Monday—and short-change dockworkers.
“Who’s the greedy one here?” asked Daggett. “These companies over in Europe. They don’t give a fuck about us. We’re going to show them they’re going to have to give a fuck about us. Because nothing’s going to move without us.”
In Philadelphia, workers walked in a circular picket line at a rail crossing outside the port, just after midnight, and chanted, “No work without a fair contract,” The Associated Press reported. Local ILA president Boise Butler made remarks on wages and automation. Like Daggett, he mentioned the billions that shipping companies made during the pandemic.
“Now we want them to pay back,” Butler said. “They’re going to pay back.”
The striking dockworkers drew support from other unions, including the United Auto Workers (UAW).
“The UAW stands in solidarity with the 45,000 courageous port workers fighting for economic justice. Without their labor, nothing in this country moves,” the UAW wrote on social media.
Most recently, some ILA dockworkers have reportedly had a base salary of $81,000 and some have earned as much as $200,000 with large amounts of overtime. They say their hours are extremely long and the conditions are harsh or even dangerous. The top hourly rate has been $39 and the hourly pay can be as low as $20 for “backbreaking, indispensable work,” according to More Perfect Union, a progressive media outlet.
The ILA reportedly demanded a $5 per year raise in hourly pay over the course of a six-year contract, so that the top hourly rate in the final year would be $69. West Coast dockworkers reached a deal with operators that will have them earning just over $60 an hour by 2027. USMX offered only a $2.50 raise each year.
The two sides exchanged counteroffers regarding wages on Monday, with each side moving from its initial position, according to USMX.
President Joe Biden, a Democrat, has the authority under the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act to break the strike and institute an 80-day cooling off period—a power that Republican presidents have used. Biden said Sunday that he doesn’t plan to do so.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Tuesday pushed Biden to stick to that plan not to interfere.
“President Biden is right,” Sanders wrote on social media. “He should not invoke Taft-Hartley to end the port strike. Dock workers are striking against excessive corporate greed. The shipping industry has made $400 billion in profits since 2020. It’s time for dock workers to be treated with respect, not contempt.”
The New York Times reported Tuesday that Biden faced a “quandary” five weeks before the election—not wanting to anger union allies and working class advocates by intervening, but also not wanting the strike to “weigh on the economy.”
More than half of the country’s container shipments go through the three dozen affected ports, and a prolonged strike would cause major economic disruptions, experts say. More Perfect Union wrote that “port owners’ refusal” to meet union demands could cost the U.S. economy billions of dollars a week.
Updated as of 6pm Central Standard Time: KMBC News
Striking port workers to return to work Friday as negotiators reach an agreement on wages, reports say
Striking members of the International Longshoremen’s Association will be back to work at the ports on Friday, the union announced Thursday evening, as the union and the management group representing shipping lines, terminal operators and port authorities have reached a tentative deal on wages.
The agreement on wages amounts to a $4-per-hour raise for each year of the six-year contract, a source with knowledge of the negotiations told CNN.
The union agreed to extend the contract it had with the United States Maritime Alliance, the management group known as USMX, which represents shipping lines, terminal operators and port authorities. That deal, which had expired at the end of Monday, will be now extended until January 15 and have the union members back on the job while the final details are worked out in a full agreement and it is ratified by the rank-and-file.
The 50,000 members of the union working at ports from Maine to Texas have been on strike since early Tuesday morning, halting the flow of the majority of containerized imports into the United States, along with many of the exports, disrupting the sales of American businesses overseas.
A tentative deal would still need to be ratified by the rank-and-file ILA members before it would take effect. But with ships stuck at sea unable to come into US ports to unload and load goods, the union has agreed to have workers return to work on Friday.
Still, should the members vote against the deal, the strike might start once again. And such a rejection of a tentative labor deal is not unheard of.
dockworkers, strike, picket lines, East Coast, Gulf Coast, contract, negotiations, port operations, ILA.
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