NORTH BERGEN, NJ – (September 17, 2024) The tens of thousands of International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) longshore workers at ports from Maine to Texas are united as never before in their determination to win a new contract with their employers represented by United States Maritime Alliance (USMX). In two weeks, they are ready to strike for wages that are commensurate with the billion-dollar profits earned by the Ocean Carriers.
A strike at all ILA ports on the Atlantic and Gulf Coast at 12:01 am on October 1st seems more likely as time is running out to get a new Master Contract Agreement settled with USMX.
ILA longshore workers understand that the time is now to take a stand and fight a higher level of wages, that compensates them for their contributions to enriching their employers and the industry and addresses high inflation that eats away at their current salary levels.
“A sleeping giant is ready to roar on Tuesday, October 1, 2024, if a new Master Contract Agreement is not in place,” said ILA President Harold J. Daggett. “My members have been preparing for over a year for that possibility of a strike.”
Instead of negotiating in good faith and respecting the ILA workforce, USMX has chosen to engage in an ugly propaganda campaign designed to paint ILA longshore workers as “greedy” and to also mask their own ineptitude and failure in these negotiations, dating back almost two years ago when they came into exploratory talks with the union and were totally unprepared.
USMX is leaking details of its talks with ILA leaders about the union’s demands for increases in wages and continued protections against automation.
“USMX claims to offer industry-leading wages, however, their interpretation of ‘leading wages’ is polar opposite to ours,” the ILA said in a letter to its membership earlier this week. “Inflation has completely eaten into any raises and wages. Everything is more expensive, even compared to six-years ago. Our members are struggling to pay their mortgages and rent, car payments, groceries, utility bills, taxes, and in some cases, their children’s education. USMX’s corporate greed has made them delusional – profits over people. They have taken advantage of a low entry-wage and a tiered progression system for thirty years.”
“Our work is in a shape industry – we are at the beck and call of the ships. No ships mean no work,” the ILA continued, noting unique working and scheduling conditions in the longshoring industry. “The only guarantees our workers have been hourly, daily or shift guarantees. Our rank-and-file members are not on salary – they work when the ships are docked at the berth, and only if their seniority affords them the opportunity.”
ILA rank-and-files members will no longer accept Master Contracts that include small wage increases of a dollar or less with the employers sometimes asking for no yearly increases within the terms of the agreement.
“For over three decades, the annual increase in wages for ILA workers rose only a meager 2.02 percent per year, on average” the ILA said. “Many years that percentage was zero, including the years 1993-1996 when ILA longshore workers saw no increases in wages. This kind of treatment in negotiations is unacceptable for the ILA deepsea longshore workforce of 2024.”
The ILA also intends to recapture all monies earned through the industry’s Container Royalty.
“Container Royalty was originally negotiated as a supplemental wage,” the ILA wrote in their letter to its membership. “That’s our members’ money, earned through hard work! Our members should never have to share their container royalty money with the ocean carriers, who are currently making record profits.”
It’s those record profits that have inspired ILA Wage Scale Committee to seek higher wage increases for the next Master Contract Agreement.
“USMX must face the reality that those years of spotty yearly increases of a dollar are now part of history,” ILA President Harold Daggett said. “Since USMX would rather leak our wage demands to the media, instead of reporting on the record billion-dollar profits of their member companies, I can say ‘yes, we are looking for a much higher percent increase in our wages’. Our ILA members never stopped working during the Covid pandemic, even with ILA longshore workers dying or becoming gravely ill. The companies that employ ILA pay their executives billion-dollar bonus while our longshore workers work all year, around the clock, in brutal conditions of freezing cold and scorching heat. Why shouldn’t we ask for a $10 an hour increase? The ILA longshore worker deserves it, and the companies have the money to pay it.”
The ILA holds strong in the belief that their opportunity to fight for fair wages is now, with the current six-year agreement expiring in a little more than two weeks.
With an ILA membership united, coupled with an army of international dockworker unions ready to join the ILA in their battle against USMX, President Harold Daggett is certain ILA members will achieve a landmark agreement, even if it takes a coast-wide strike beginning October 1st to get it.
Leave a Reply