The Cruises Will Be Spared
Hope you’ve stocked up: At midnight, the longshoremen of the East Coast and Gulf officially went on strike. From Maine to Texas, our ports are about to deal with some wild backlogs.
The union that represents these dockworkers, the International Longshoremen’s Association, is demanding a 77 percent increase in pay over the next six years—up from their current rate of $39 per hour—and assurances that bosses won’t seek to automate their jobs away. (Given that their compatriots on the West Coast secured a 32 percent pay raise last year, it’s possible they’ll settle for a fair bit less than 77 percent.)
Union boss Harold Daggett (who makes $710,909 annually in total compensation, in case you were curious) said the quiet part out loud: “Today’s world…[corporate bosses] they’re not making millions no more, they’re making billions, and they’re spending it as fast as they make it. I want a piece of that for my men. Because when they made their most money was during COVID, when my men had to go to work on those piers every single day, when everybody stayed home and went to work. They died out there with the virus, we all got sick with the virus, we kept ’em going.… I want to be compensated for that. I’m not asking for the world…we have to fight for what we rightfully deserve.”
“These people today don’t know what a strike is,” continued Daggett, getting a little darker, presaging the chaos.
“When my men hit the streets from Maine to Texas, every single port locked down. You know what’s going to happen? I’ll tell you. First week, be all over the news every night, boom, boom, second week. Guys who sell cars can’t sell cars, because the cars ain’t coming in off the ships. They get laid off. Third week, mall starts closing down. They can’t get the goods from China. They can’t sell clothes. They can’t do this. Everything in the United States comes on a ship. They go out of business. Construction workers get laid off because the materials aren’t coming in. The steel’s not coming in. The lumber’s not coming in. They lose their job. Everybody’s hating the longshoremen now because now they realize how important our jobs are.…I will cripple you, and you have no idea what that means.”
(Language, sir!)
The current ILA contract specifies pay of $39 per hour for longshoremen (so roughly $80,000 annually), with starting salaries a bit lower. This doesn’t account for overtime, which is generous. For longshoremen who log aggressive overtime, we’re talking $200,000 annually. This is some of the highest pay available for a job that does not require a college degree.
Yet Daggett is threatening to hold entire sectors of the economy hostage so that his guys can get a raise—and dictate to their bosses that they shan’t be replaced by technology that could in some cases make backbreaking work a lot less awful and dangerous while, yes, probably eliminating some number of jobs.
Negotiations have repo
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