News / ILA chief vows to form global 'mega-union' to fight port automation

Harold Daggett

Belligerent US International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) president Harold Daggett has vowed to initiate strikes on 1 October if agreement is not reached with the “far apart” port operators’ United States Maritime Alliance (USMX)

And, he said, he intends to take on all the major carriers by forming a global ‘mega-union’.  

Yesterday, the union’s EVP – and his son – Dennis Dagget, told ILA members: “When we first sat down with USMX, we came prepared and we were ready to start negotiating. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case on their side. 

“Right now we’re at an impasse.  We can’t even get past the economics of the contract.  We are very, very far apart.” 

Today sees the final ILA ‘wage scale meeting’, where union delegates will review their master contract demands and establish strike committees from Maine to Texas, “to be ready for 1 October”. 

Details of the ILA’s contract demands will not be released, but the union has been vocal about wage increases, health benefits and rejecting automated and semi-automated terminals.  

“Out of the pandemic, the carriers and the terminal operators reached record profits, but don’t want to share those profits with our membership, and we find that offensive,” said Mr Daggett Jr.  

“Nobody really wants a strike, but unfortunately, with the labour laws we have in this country, a strike is one of the few weapons that we have in our arsenal… so if we’re put in a corner, we’re not going to hesitate to strike back.” 

A strike across US east and Gulf coast ports would have huge repercussions for shippers, causing major supply chain delays and subsequent rate hikes.  

Meanwhile, Mr Daggett Snr has revealed his radical plan to ‘go global’ once negotiations for the US East and Gulf coast ports are concluded.  

“I’m going to form an alliance with every working union in the world,” he declared.  

“We’re going to get all the unions around the world to meet in Portugal; we’re going to get the IDC [International Dockworkers’ Council] and I’m going to ask the seamen who run the all the ships to come.” 

Mr Daggett’s plan is largely motivated by the threat of job losses from terminal automation.  

“In today’s world, you have three big companies that want to push automation on everybody… the only way we can fight this is by having this alliance,” he said.  

“Take a company like Maersk – let’s say it wants to go into Chile and build a fully automated terminal. If that’s going to happen, this alliance will kick in and we will shut down Maersk [operations] throughout the world.” 

Of course, despite the ILA’s previous grievance with the Danish line over an automated traffic light system in the US port of Mobil, Maersk isn’t the only carrier in the union’s sights. 

“We are going to shut them down around the world and put them out of business…if they think they’re going to keep putting [in] fully automated terminals and knocking out jobs that dock workers have worked for 200 years. 

“They don’t need us any more; they want to put a fully automated terminal in and get rid of us. I will never allow that. We’re going to have this alliance and we’re going to show the companies ‘we have the power, not you’,” added Mr Daggett.  

But Lars Jensen, CEO of Vespucci Maritime, noted: “You have to read this information from the ILA as what it is – part of their negotiation strategy to put maximum pressure on the USMX.” 

The six-year agreement between USMX and the ILA, covering some 25,000 port workers in container and ro-ro operations at ports on the US east and Gulf coasts, expires on 30 September.   

You can listen to the ILA speech here