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Think of the short duration dock workers strike which paralyzed ports on the East Coast and Gulf Coast in October?
The strike lasted only three days, but cost the American economy billions in lost revenue. The work stoppage was temporarily resolved when the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) agreed to a 61.5% wage increase for the next six years. The ILA and the United States Maritime Alliance have raised other issues, the most important of which is port automation.
The contract extension that was negotiated expires on January 15, 2025 – five days before President-elect Trump takes office for his second term.
DOCKWORKERS’ UNION FINISHES NEGOTIATIONS WITH EAST AND GULF COAST EMPLOYERS
However, there is one major glitch, which was underreported by the corporate media: the two sides halted all negotiations in mid-November, with the ILA walking away from the negotiating table and stating: “USMX introduced language in their proposal for -automated equipment for use in ILA ports, which this union rejected outright. The ILA recognized this as a renewed attempt by USMX to eliminate ILA jobs through automation and broke off the talks.
The Chairman of the ILA, Harold J. Daggett is confident that no automation will enter U.S. ports under its control. Mr. Daggett is against almost any use of technology. In fact, he opposes the use of EZ Passes on the nation’s toll roads and laments the loss of union jobs for toll booths because EZ Passes’ allow motorists to drive through them like it’s nothing and then get a bill in the mail. .all those union jobs are gone.” he claimed in a post on the ILA’s YouTube channel in September.
Maybe Mr. Daggett should do some reading. According to a recent study by the World Bank and S&P Global Market Intelligence, the ports of the United States are among the least efficient in the world, with the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach ranking as the two least efficient ports in the world. to ports such as Dar es Salaam in Tanzania and Pointe-Noire in the Republic of Congo.
Yes, ports in the United States are less efficient than ports in third world countries. No U.S. port ranked anywhere near the top 10 most efficient ports in the world. The culprit: the lack of automation. Unloading a container ship in the United States takes one to three days. By comparison, ports in Japan take 0.36 days to unload a ship of similar size.
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Mr. Daggett is focused on the wrong fight. Instead of fighting automation, he should embrace it. Instead of walking away from the bargaining table to protect outdated union jobs, he should push the USMX to automate faster while protecting jobs.
A simple position of embrace automation but guaranteeing that any union member who loses his or her job to automation will be hired by the USMX with the same salary and benefits package would avoid a strike and help the United States transform its ports into world-class ones, putting us out disappear from the nineteenth century to the twenty-first century.
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Newly appointed Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy will have to tackle this challenge on day one of the Trump administration. Secretary Duffy must demonstrate that he will remove the DOT’s focus on equity in roads and bridges and promote efficiency, returning the United States to its rightful position as the most advanced nation in the world.
The answers are not difficult, it just takes courage to implement them.
