NORTH BERGEN, NJ (November 3, 2022) ILA President Harold J. Daggett used the stage of 2022 Admiral of the Ocean Sea Award, attended by almost a thousand shipping executives, maritime employers, longshore labor, port authorities and military, to announce that the International Longshoremen’s Association and United States Maritime Association (USMX) will step up informal talks leaders of both organizations have been engaged in and begin formal negotiations on a ILA-USMX Master Contract in the near future.
In front of top-level shipping executives and port stakeholders, the ILA leader repeated the union’s strong and unwavering opposition to automated ports.
“First of all, you all know how I feel about automation and automated ships,” ILA President Daggett said. “Automation – That’s a code word for unemployment,” the ILA leader continued. “The ILA has pledged to USMX that we will outproduce any automated equipment.
The longshore union president opened his remarks at the AOTOS dinner by praising his ILA members and the heroic job they performed over the past three years as the world battled the dangers and restrictions brought on by the COVID pandemic.
“I must share this Award with the 75 thousand ILA men and women working at waterfronts up and down the Atlantic Coast; throughout the Gulf region; Puerto Rico; Great Lakes, Canada, and now including Freeport in the Bahamas,” President Daggett said as he held up the AOTOS Statuette.
“My admiration for my ILA members skyrocketed these past three years as they demonstrated that they are truly America’s Front-Line Heroes.”
The ILA leader likened working through the COVID danger to fighting in a war as an American soldier. “Allow me a moment to ask you to remember 35 active ILA members who we lost to COVID. This Pandemic was a war we all fought, and 35 of my ILA members made the ultimate sacrifice.”
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