For the first time since 1977, almost 50,000 port workers and members of the International Longshoreman’s Association (ILA) went on strike on Tuesday. The negotiation represents a contract dispute between the ILA and the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX). The previously negotiated Master Contract represented a six-year term (2018-2024) that expired on Sept. 30.
Contract negotiations began in February 2023, according to the Freightwaves publication. However, ILA President, Harold Daggett ended the talks prematurely, asserting that USMX companies allegedly violated its agreement promising not to automate human jobs. USMX states on its website that it has already “successfully negotiated ten new contracts with ILA without a coast-wide work stoppage.”
The three dozen ports affected by the East Coast strike are Boston, New York/New Jersey, Philadelphia, Wilmington, North Carolina, Baltimore, Norfolk, Charleston, Savannah, Jacksonville, Tampa, Miami, New Orleans, Mobile, and Houston. White House officials say the president does not plan to step in to help negotiate an end to the strike. Dock workers can earn more than $200,000 a year, but their work involves the “dangerous and physically exhausting job of moving containers on and off vessels.”
The walk-out may be one of the most crippling work stoppages in decades, affecting the delivery of all manner of household and commercial goods. Americans may be looking at devastating supply chain issues right before the 2024 election and the upcoming holiday season.
The 1977 ILA strike lasted 45 days, but the impact was not as profound. In 1977, the economy was not as globalized as it is now. ILA union members in 1977 successfully negotiated a hefty pay hike and, before that, in 1964, negotiated “guaranteed annual income (GAI) for union workers” whether on the job or not. According to the Washington Post, global trade “accounted for just 16 percent of the U.S. economy, far below the current 27 percent, according to the World Bank.” The strike affects “a little over half the nation’s trade in shipping containers.”
According to one estimate from JP Morgan, every day the strike continues costs the U.S. economy between $3.8 billion to $4.5 billion a day, “with some of that recovered over time after normal operations continue.” The strike comes at a particularly difficult time when many Americans in Eastern states are trying to resupply and rebuild after the devastating effects of Hurricane Helene.
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www.uncoverdc.com/2024/10/01/port-workers-demand-higher-wages-and-resist-automation-of-jobs