NORTH BERGEN, NJ – (August 22, 2024) The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) is confident that polls showing high approval for labor unions across America will be an asset as it prepares for ILA Wage Scale Meetings for early September and a possible coast-wide strike at Atlantic and Gulf Coast ports on October 1, 2024, if a new agreement is not reached with United States Maritime Alliance (USMX).
Last month, CBS News reported that 71% of Americans approve of unions, citing a Gallup poll. Support among younger workers was growing rapidly, with 64.3% of members of Generation Z supporting unions, according to the CBS report.
“The ILA is working hard to avoid a strike come October 1st, but we’re confident that the American public will side with ILA workers who are fighting for a fair and decent contract from foreign shipping companies that are earning billion-dollar profits at U.S. ports” said ILA President Harold Daggett. “It can be best summed up as a battle for good paying American jobs against foreign companies earning billions off the backs of longshore workers.”
The ILA anticipates the shippers represented by USMX will try to sway public opinion in their direction. But the union is certain the American public is much more astute than it was in 2002 when employers locked out longshore workers represented by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and tried to place the blame on them, characterizing them as greedy strikers.
“Many Americans understand that their own jobs are threatened by automation, and by employers who are more interested in the bottom line than paying them fair wages,” said ILA President Daggett. “The general public knows and remembers that ILA workers kept commerce moving throughout the pandemic, and never shut the ports down, allowing goods to be delivered to their communities.”
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