East Coast longshore workers, along with the International
Longshoremen's Association, are returning to work after three angry dayson the picket lines. They've been promised a $24 hourly pay raise over
six years, which will take the top pay from $39 to $63. ---- The strike
has paralyzed shipping at huge port complexes like Newark, Houston and
Charleston, stopping a lot of fruit, vehicles and heavy equipment. It
was the first strike for the ILA since 1977. ---- The sides will return
to bargaining on the strike's other big issue, automation, extending the
old agreement to Jan. 15. The longshoremen union is negotiating with a
consortium of freight forwarders and terminal operators known as the
U.S. Maritime Alliance, or USMX.
The union had some leverage because of the upcoming presidential
election, and as he had pledged to do, President Joe Biden refused to
end the strike by invoking emergency powers under the Taft-Hartley Act.
CRYING FOR INTERVENTION
The Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers
called on Biden to end the strike, arguing that it would hinder recovery
from Hurricane Helene.
However, breaking a strike in this way would have been risky for
employers, because longshore workers are in a strong position to
organize slowdowns that would leave ships empty and docks full of export
cargo.
Instead, Biden administration officials appear to have put a lot of
pressure on employers to settle. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg
called on shipping companies to stop adding surcharges that could
increase their revenue by offsetting the costs of the strike.
Labor Secretary Julie Su was praised by ILA President Harold Daggett,
who spoke from the picket line: "She's knocking on doors. She's trying
to get fair negotiations."
Clips of Daggett criticizing USMX went viral. Terminal workers "got rich
during Covid when everyone stayed home while the dockworkers went to
work every single day and some of them died on the job," he said as the
strike began. "We make their money and they don't want to share it with us."
Although workers don't have to vote to strike under ILA bylaws, several
local chapters held ballots and voted unanimously in favor of striking.
Leadership has kept a tight lid on the picket lines, with members
refusing to speak to reporters, but those who broke protocol said they
were inspired by the Autoworkers Stand-Up Strike and the UPS Teamsters'
contract drive last year. Both unions have issued statements in support
of the ILA strikers. Port workers from Spain and the West Coast have
also joined the picket lines in New Jersey.
In Florida, with major ports in Jacksonville and Miami, Republican Gov.
Ron DeSantis said yesterday he would send in the National Guard and
Florida State Guard to "maintain order" and "resume operations where
possible." Workers have been skeptical.
LATE
ILA members have lagged behind West Coast Union workers (ILWU), whose
starting pay in the latest contract ($40) exceeded the maximum pay for
East Coast workers ($39). East Coast workers started at $20 and went up
to $39 in six years.
This interim deal would change that, with a $6 raise the first year,
followed by $5, $4, and $3 for the next three years.
On the West Coast, however, rising wages have accompanied the expansion
of automation. The Long Beach complex near Los Angeles now has two fully
automated terminals.
"California dockworkers have already lost their jobs to automation," an
ILA Local 1804 machinist said on the picket line in Elizabeth, New
Jersey. "We're trying to make sure that doesn't happen to us."
History tells us that it has been much easier to win wage increases than
to prevent job losses due to automation. The outcome of this strike fits
that pattern. When ports switched to container shipping 50 years ago,
resulting in job losses, the union negotiated a royalty on every ton
shipped, paid by employers, to offset job losses and supplement the pay
of members whose work intensified. An employer-imposed cap on the
royalty fund was a sticking point in the negotiations, Daggett said from
the picket line.
The agreement appears to have raised or eliminated a cap on employer
contributions to this fund, although the details are unclear.
The negotiations have been opaque to members. Workers will vote on a
full agreement when negotiations on other issues are concluded. The old
agreement has now been extended, and wage increases will take effect
after the vote.
Starting and maximum rates don't tell the whole story of pay, because
the complex work rules the union has defended for decades supplement
hourly rates. Longshore workers also work a lot of overtime, leading
major media outlets to estimate that the average worker earns more than
$100,000 a year.
Daggett himself was criticized in the press for his union salary of
about $900,000 and his large home: The New York Post took an aerial
photo of a mansion with a four-car garage and a large pool.
Pensions remain a sore point for the ILA. Workers in Houston and
Philadelphia have no pensions at all, while many other workers on the
East Coast have barely any. Pensions on the West Coast are uniform
across ports and higher overall.
CONNECTED TO A MACHINE
The call to stop further automation resonated with workers on the picket
line, who carried pre-printed signs reading "Machines Don't Feed
Families, ILA Workers Do." They reported seeing electronic innovations
that could cost jobs if allowed, such as radio frequency ID tagging of
incoming trucks.
While the current contract prevents the elimination of the human
operator entirely, new machinery increases efficiency and intensifies
work, eliminating jobs. In Hampton Roads, Virginia, the introduction of
new ship-to-dock cranes has eliminated jobs for tractor operators.
Workers described the intensified workload. A tractor operator has some
autonomy and can take breaks, but new machinery connects the operator to
a computer system, "and you chase him around all shift," one worker
said. "You're burned out."
But that part of the agreement still needs to be negotiated.
From "Labor Notes",
https://labornotes.org/2024/10/port-strike-ends-workers-win-24-wage-increase
https://umanitanova.org/i-portuali-usa-ottengono-forti-aumenti-di-salario/
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