Kay Ivey, Trump weigh in on dockworker strike while union vows to continue

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WTVY) - Governor Kay Ivey and former President Donald Trump gave their thoughts on the dockworker strike Tuesday impacting ports around the U.S., including ports on Alabama’s Gulf Coast, as the union vowed to continue the strike as long as necessary.

The strike, formed by nearly 50,000 longshoremen across 36 ports from Maine to Texas, was organized by the International Longshoremen Association (ILA) and unanimously supported at a vote in September.

The ILA, comprised of tens of thousands of dockworkers, planned negotiations with the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) for months, citing companies like Maersk for “repeatedly trying to eliminate ILA jobs with the introduction of automation.”

The USMX, a non-profit, incorporated membership association, works to protect the interests of employers of the East and Gulf Coast longshore industry.

In June, the ILA warned the USMX that the union would suspend negotiations after discovering that APM Terminals and Maersk Line were utilizing an Auto Gate system, which autonomously processes trucks without dockworker labor in Mobile, Alabama.

“Who the hell is a foreign company like Maersk, to come on to American soil and build fully automated terminals,” ILA President Harold Daggett asked in a fiery speech at a 2023 convention. “This foreign company Maersk tries to shove fully automated terminals down our throats and for what reason? To eliminate good paying American jobs, ILA jobs.”

The ILA said it would not meet with USMX until the Auto Gate issue was “resolved.”

Once negotiations resumed, the ILA aimed to demand “respectable hourly wages” and a contract securing dockworker jobs in the face of automation.

On Monday, September 30, the USMX offered a wage hike near 50% over the next six years. The ILA rejected the offer.

Instead, the ILA announced Tuesday that the workers want a $5 an hour per year increase over six years, alongside a contract with strict language against automation.

On Tuesday, Governor Kay Ivey issued a statement on the ILA strike saying, “Alabamians want to work and provide for their families, but, once again, big labor is exploiting them. If the ILA was genuinely fighting for their workers, they would be at the table negotiating for them.”

In response to the USMX, Daggett said, “We are now demanding $5 an hour increase in wages for each of the six years of a new ILA-USMX Master Contract.”

“Plus, we want absolute airtight language that there will be no automation or semi-automation,” Daggett continued.

That ‘airtight language’ could help soothe fears that automation takes jobs from dockworkers. The union is demanding a total ban on automated cranes, gates and container-moving trucks used for freight.

According to Fox News, former President Donald Trump said the ILA strike was a result of inflation caused by the current presidential administration.

“Everybody understands the dockworkers because they were decimated by this inflation, just like everybody else in our country and beyond,” Trump said.

Governor Ivey seemed to echo Trump’s claims saying, “No matter how this [strike] ends, we can remember no Administration has done more to inflate prices than the Biden-Harris Administration.”

The ILA was the first to admit that inflation was a motivation for the union’s actions.

Four months ago, Daggett said, “While our ILA members are battling inflation, trying to pay their mortgages, and send their children to college, our employers and companies are enjoying record profits.”

The ILA detailed those corporate gains, referencing over $370 billion in profit for companies in the USMX during the last four years.

Because of those profits, Daggett assured dockworkers nationwide the ILA would not yield to companies blaming the economy.

“We are not going to entertain any sob stories from employers during negotiations about a sluggish economy,” Daggett said months before the strike began.

If the strike lasts longer than one month, shoppers could begin seeing even higher prices on a vast array of goods, including vegetables, coffee, auto parts, and even pharmaceutical products.

Even though inflation may have motivated the ILA’s desire for $5 more an hour, the union’s bigger concerns lie in a gradual loss of jobs to automation.

Along with demanding a ban on automated machinery, the ILA accused USMX companies of “employing certain technologies to circumvent clerical tasks, hiding these changes under the guise of technological upgrades that effectively reduce or eliminate jobs traditionally held by ILA clerks.”

In the past, the ILA has criticized President Joe Biden and his administration, saying the president and lawmakers have turned a blind eye to automation and its “devastating effect on American workers.”

As for the dockworker strike, Biden said he does not plan to intervene.

If the strike were deemed a danger to economic health, the president could seek a court order to suspend the strike under the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act.

However, Biden said he disagrees with suspending the strike saying, “Because it’s collective bargaining, I don’t believe in Taft-Hartley.”

Before the strike began, the ILA called on President Biden to recognize the threat posed by foreign-owned companies “attempting to undermine American jobs.”

When strikers took to the picket lines on Tuesday, they received an international demonstration of solidarity from the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.

A JPMorgan analysis estimated the daily cost of the port strike would cost the U.S. economy between $3.8 billion and $4.5 billion per day as operations slow, according to Fox Business.

The ILA said it intends for strike demonstrations to continue “round the clock, 24/7, for as long as it takes” until the USMX accepts the demands of its workers.

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