East Coast Dockworkers Plan To Strike Tuesday, Hobbling Supply Chain
Daily WireSEP 20 2024
Some 45K US dockworkers ended their 3-day strike Thursday following an International Longshoremen's Association (ILA)-US Maritime Alliance (USMX) deal.
While the ILA wanted a 77% wage increase over six years, and USMX offered a 50% hike, the two sides reportedly agreed to a 62% pay raise, increasing the average hourly port worker wage from $39 to $63 over that period.
The two sides will continue to negotiate the issue of automation, which the workers fear threatens their jobs, before the current contract extension until Jan. 15. If the other issues aren't solved over the next 90 days, the pay raise will be retracted.
The US dockworkers' strike exposed the ugly underbelly of union monopolies. It threatened to paralyze trade and harm countless lower-paid workers across industries, demonstrating how unchecked union power can lead to extortion-like tactics, ultimately hurting the very workers that the unions claim to protect.
LetDon't notlet Thursday's tentative agreement lull us into believing that the US's portsport problemproblems isare solved. The issue at the heart of the dispute, automation, remains heavily salient. It is an existential threat to well-paid workers and the strike was merely the opening salvo—this and the agreement merely bought the country some time.