Along the east coast of the United States, people transporting goods from ship to shore are on strike. For the first time since 1977, 47,000 members of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) are walking the picket line. The union’s existing contract expired late Monday night after negotiations with bosses broke down. Along with better pay, longshore workers want something existential and hard to secure: a future where robots don’t take their jobs.
The ILA strike will hit 36 ports from Maine to Texas, shutting down most cargo entering the eastern half of the United States. America is built on trade, and for hundreds of years, dock workers have unloaded goods from ships, sorted them, and loaded them for shipment across the country.
Without longshore workers, America’s supply chain would grind to a halt. Much of the country is stocking up on goods ahead of the Christmas season, but there’s always something coming in, so the longer the strike goes on, the more likely it is that Americans will feel the pinch. Inflation may rise. There is a possibility that the product may be out of stock.
That’s the point, according to ILA President Harold J. Daggett. “These people don’t know what a strike is,” Daggett said in an interview posted on YouTube on Sept. 5. I’ll teach you. first week. Please enjoy the news every night, Boom Boom. During the second week, car sellers cannot sell their cars because no cars come in from the ship. they get fired. 3rd week. Shopping malls begin to close. You cannot get products from China. Everything in the United States comes from ships. ”
ILA is negotiating with the U.S. Maritime Alliance, which represents ports and major shipping lines. The Maritime Alliance announced on Monday that it proposed tripling employer contributions to retirement plans, strengthening health care plans and increasing wages by 50% over six years. It also said it would maintain old language in the previous union contract restricting the use of automation at ports.
The ILA is calling for a 77% increase and a complete ban on automation at ports. Daggett said he’s seen shipping companies make billions of dollars in profits during the pandemic and wants his employees to have a piece of the pie. “In today’s world, I’ll cripple you. I’ll cripple you and you don’t know what that means. Nobody does that,” he said on YouTube said in an interview.
The Maritime Alliance knows what that looks like, and that’s probably a big part of why it has doggedly pursued automation at ports over the past few years. The robot has already arrived at the port. Automation can already handle two of the biggest jobs at ports: unloading large numbers of shipping containers with cranes and sorting those shipping containers on shore. There are already three fully automated terminals in the US More are on the way. Installing equipment to automate ports is expensive and still requires workers, but far fewer workers than are needed to unload goods the old-fashioned way.
“You don’t have to pay a pension to a robot,” says Brian Jones, a foreman at the Port of Philadelphia. told the New York Times In September. West Coast longshoremen signed an agreement with the Maritime Alliance last year. they are secured a raise There was no need to go on strike, but it did not stop the rollout of automation.
