(States Newsroom) — Tens of thousands of dockworkers went on strike from Savannah to Maine on Tuesday to demand higher wages and a ban on all automation at ports in a move that could snarl supply chains only a month ahead of the presidential election.
The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) union and United States Maritime Alliance (USMX), which represents employers in the longshore industry, were unable to reach a new contract agreement. This is the union’s first strike since 1977 when dockworkers stopped work for several weeks.
More than 500 union members gathered at the gates of Maher Terminals in Elizabeth, New Jersey early Tuesday for the start of the strike. Harold Daggett, International President of the ILA, rallied the crowd as he spoke at one of the main container terminal operators at Port Newark–Elizabeth Marine Terminal, an important facility for goods entering the New York Metropolitan area.
“These greedy corporations, everything they got, they got from us. We’re the ones who worked through the pandemic to make them the money they got,” Daggett said in an interview.
When asked how long the strike would last, Daggett said that union members will stay on strike “until the end.”
On Monday, the ILA said employers were price-gouging customers by charging much more for containers, which would lead to higher prices for consumers. It stated that the wages offered by USMX were still too low to accept.
“The Ocean Carriers represented by USMX want to enjoy rich billion-dollar profits that they are making in 2024 while they offer ILA Longshore Workers an unacceptable wage package that we reject,” the union said in a statement. “ILA longshore workers deserve to be compensated for the important work they do keeping American commerce moving and growing.”
Scott Weiss, a member of ILA Local 1804-1, inspects containers that come off of ships entering at Port Newark–Elizabeth Marine Terminal, as well the chassis of the trucks that then carry the containers filled with goods away to destinations all along the East Coast.
Weiss said that the union is asking for wage increases that can cover the cost of inflation and that a human eye is still needed to do his job right, even in the face of increasing automation.
“Employers push automation under the guise of safety, but it’s really about cutting labor costs to increase their already exceptionally high profits. Automation of our nation’s ports should be a concern for everyone,” he said. “The truth is robots do not pay taxes, and they do not spend money in their communities.”
The union said it will continue to handle military cargo and work passenger cruise ships.
USMX filed an unfair labor practice complaint Wednesday with the National Labor Relations Board, accusing the union of refusing to bargain.
“We have demonstrated a commitment to doing our part to end the completely avoidable ILA strike,” USMX said in a statement Tuesday afternoon. encouraging the union to come to the bargaining table. “Our current offer of a nearly 50% wage increase exceeds every other recent union settlement while addressing inflation and recognizing the ILA’s hard work to keep the global economy running. We look forward to hearing from the Union about how we can return to the table and actually bargain, which is the only way to reach a resolution.”
USMX said before the strike began that their latest offer retained the same language on automation.
Voters remain laser-focused on the economy heading into the Nov. 5 election. Eighty-one percent of registered voters say the economy is very important to their vote for president this November, according to a poll published last month from the nonpartisan Pew Research Center.
Lauren Saidel-Baker, a speaker and economist at ITR Economics, a nonpartisan economic research and consulting firm based in New Hampshire, said that the longer the strike goes on, the greater the impact will be on inflation. Inflation cooled significantly enough for the Federal Reserve to cut the federal funds rate by half a percentage point last month.
“If this is just a week, again, there will be short-term disruptions and maybe things take a little bit longer to get where they’re going. That could be a risk for perishable items,” she said.
The supply chain issues that affected retail prices at the beginning of the pandemic may have prepared businesses for some disruption, she said, and this could mitigate some of the effects for consumers in the short term.
“We’re in a very unique situation where we just had this major, major supply chain disruption that caused a lot of American businesses to make contingency plans in a way that they just haven’t in the past. We have creativity and increased flexibility that will help us if this is just a brief disruption,” she said. “We still have elevated inventories in some sectors, so there might be a little bit more buffer in certain goods getting where they’re going.”
Aside from the economic effects on consumers, strikes can have spillover effects on other groups of workers. If dockworkers secure a strong contract as the result of this strike, it could affect other industries. Alexander Hertel-Fernandez, associate professor of international and public Affairs at Columbia University, and former deputy assistant secretary for research and evaluation at the U.S. Department of Labor, said the success of auto worker strikes and the Hollywood strikes may have emboldened union dockworkers.
“I think you’re likely to see other industries, particularly those most closely aligned with, um, transportation and logistics, really pick up the baton on that, especially if the economic and political environment continues to be favorable to them,” Hertel-Fernandez said.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has called on the Biden administration to invoke the Taft-Hartley Act, which allows presidents to intervene in strikes if it creates a national emergency. President Joe Biden has said that he won’t.
Biden’s position is unlikely to change, Hertel-Fernandez said, because of the politics of the timing.
“I think you would see a pretty negative response from the labor movement if they were to do so,” he said. “Given that it’s so close to the election, where labor is such an important constituent for the Democrats, that they would be unlikely to do it.”
Biden released a statement in support of striking dockworkers Tuesday and urging USMX to “present a fair offer” to the union.
“Now is not the time for ocean carriers to refuse to negotiate a fair wage for these essential workers while raking in record profits,” Biden said. “My Administration will be monitoring for any price gouging activity that benefits foreign ocean carriers, including those on the USMX board.”
Former president Donald Trump used the strike to take a jab against Kamala Harris, who he is seeking to defeat in the race for the White House.
“The strike was caused by the massive inflation that was created by the Harris-Biden regime,” Trump said to Fox News Digital.
Economists have pointed to various possible causes of inflation, which peaked in 2022, including supply chain problems, the war in Ukraine and price-gouging from corporations.
Mark J. Bonamo reported in Elizabeth for New Jersey Monitor, part of States Newsroom. Casey Quinlan reported from Washington.
