NORTH BERGEN. N.J. —Despite the key role by Acting Biden Labor Secretary Julie Su, International Longshoremen’s Association leaders wrongly rewarded Republican President-Elect Donald Trump with “full credit” that led East and Gulf Coast port owners to agree to a six-year master contract covering 85,000 dockworkers.
That’s even though Su shuttled back and forth between the union and the port owners’ U.S. Maritime Alliance (USMX) working first to halt a brief strike last year, and then urged two sides to reach a successful pact by the January 15 deadline, all of which happened. Trump had nothing to do with any of that.
Through Su’s efforts and the leverage she got from militant workers all over the East and Gulf coasts, the union and USMX already agreed in December to a 62% raise over six years and to reach a tentative agreement on everything else by mid-January.
Union President Harold Daggett and his son Dennis, ILA’s executive vice president, didn’t even talk to Trump until they dutifully went down to Mar-a-Lago to brief him in a short talk in mid-December.
All Trump had to do was to agree with what had already been worked out and announce that he supported the deal with which he had nothing to do in working out.
And now, in blatantly “kissing the ring,” Harold Daggett is calling Trump “a hero to our union and our members.”
Of interest was that ILA was one of the few major unions—the Teamsters were another—that stayed neutral in last year’s presidential race. Almost all other unions endorsed Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, Biden’s vice president.
Won union households
Harris won union household voters by at least ten percentage points, exit polls show. But she lost the overall national popular vote to Trump by less than 2 percent.
The key issue, as it has been for decades in struggles pitting the ILA and its sister International Longshore and Warehouse Union against port owners, is automation. ILWU covers West Coast ports.
While ILA President Daggett credited Trump’s pressure for the union’s win, he has thus far withheld almost all details of it beyond the already-known wage increases.
“This agreement protects current ILA jobs and establishes a framework for implementing technologies that will create more jobs while modernizing East and Gulf Coasts ports–making them safer and more efficient, and creating the capacity they need to keep our supply chains strong,” his statement said.
“This is a win-win agreement that creates ILA jobs, supports American consumers and businesses, and keeps the American economy the key hub of the global marketplace.
“President Trump clearly demonstrated his unwavering support for our ILA union and longshore workers with his statement ‘heard round the world’ backing our position to protect American longshore jobs against the ravages of automated terminals.”
Trump’s “bold stance helped prevent a second coast-wide strike at ports from Maine to Texas that would have occurred on January 15 if a tentative agreement was not reached.”
Acting Biden Labor Secretary Su who was so much more responsible for the victories than Trump, said the tentative pact, which both bosses and ILA must ratify, “will give workers security and ensure continued prosperity for America’s shipping industry.
“This administration has stood strong with workers every day and been unwavering in its view that when workers have a say and unions are strong, everybody wins–and contracts like this are proof.”
President Joe Biden, who had Su intervene last year to get the wage agreement when the ILA strike threatened holiday-season supply lines, carefully mentioned neither Su—a lightning rod for congressional GOP haters of workers—nor Trump in hailing the tentative pact.
“Collective bargaining plays an important role when it comes to building a strong economy from the middle out and the bottom up. Today’s tentative agreement…shows labor and management can come together to benefit workers and their employers,” the president said.
“I applaud the dockworkers’ union for delivering a strong contract. Their members kept our ports open during the pandemic, as we worked together to unsnarl global supply chains. Thank you to the carriers and port operators who play an essential role in our nation’s economy,” he concluded.
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