The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) – whose workers staff U.S. container ports from Maine to Florida – has reached a tentative agreement with managers to keep its members on the job, avoiding a strike that was due to resume on 16 January.
Contract details are being kept private until it is ratified by rank-and-file ILA members, but a joint statement from the union and the United States Maritime Alliance, which represents the port employers, suggested the two parties came to a compromise which would mean any semi-automation introduced to ports would be paired with new union jobs.
“We are pleased to announce that ILA and USMX have reached a tentative agreement on a new six-year ILA-USMX Master Contract, subject to ratification, thus averting any work stoppage on January 15, 2025,” the statement read. “This agreement protects current ILA jobs and establishes a framework for implementing technologies that will create more jobs while modernizing East and Gulf coast ports–making them safer and more efficient, and creating the capacity they need to keep our supply chains strong.”
Automation was the big sticking point in contract negotiations, and there appeared to be little movement likely on this point until early this week, when reports of informal machinations to resume talks began to appear. The language around automation was reportedly finalized in a secret, informal 5 January meeting which took place in advance of the official resumption of talks on Tuesday, 7 January.
Julie Su, the Acting Secretary of Labor for the Biden Administration, congratulated both parties on striking a tentative deal, and celebrated her administration’s role in supporting the negotiation of the strike pause and the pay raises that achieved it.
“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,” she said in a statement.
President Joe Biden, in his own statement, praised the role that union power had played in the outcome, saying that “collective bargaining plays an important role when it comes to building a strong economy from the middle out and the bottom up.”
“I applaud the dockworkers’ union for delivering a strong contract," Biden said. "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.”
The union itself credited President-elect Trump, not the Biden administration, for the win.
“You have proven yourself to be one of the best friends of working men and women in the United States.” ILA President Harold J. Dagget said in a statement on the union’s website. “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. President Trump’s bold stance helped prevent a second coastwide strike at ports from Maine to Texas that would have occurred on January 15, 2024, if a tentative agreement was not reached.”
Dagget referred to the strong statement in support of the union that Trump had made on 12 December on his social media platform, Truth Social.
“There has been a lot of discussion having to do with automation on United States docks. I’ve studied automation and know just about everything there is to know about it. The amount of money saved is nowhere near the distress, hurt, and harm it causes for American workers – in this case, our longshoremen," Trump said. “Foreign companies have made a fortune in the U.S. by giving them access to our markets. They shouldn’t be looking for every last penny knowing how many families are hurt. They’ve got record profits, and I’d rather these foreign companies spend it on the great men and women on our docks than machinery, which is expensive and will constantly have to be replaced. In the end, there’s no gain for them, and I hope that they will understand how important an issue this is for me.”
Trump has not yet commented…
