ILA Strike Watch 2024: ILA Announces Unanimous Support for Strike

Last week, shippers thought they could feel a little more optimistic about cargo continuing to flow through East and Gulf Coast ports. After all, the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) filed for federal mediation despite previously holding the stance of wanting no mediator from the Biden Administration no matter how poorly negotiations go. But now, shippers’ chests are tightening again.

After a two-day union meeting with about 300 ILA delegates, the union announced it has unanimous support for a coastwide strike.

That means East and Gulf Coast ports could completely shut down in less than a month. And that outcome is not only possible, but it looks likely. The ILA set September 30th, the current master contract’s expiration date, as the deadline to have a new contract agreement in place. If that doesn’t happen – which is hard to get done when the union won’t go to the negotiation table – the ILA is pledged to go on strike October 1st.

Not that we thought the strike talk was merely an idle threat from ILA President Harold Daggett, but the threat alert just reached a new level with the unanimous support from union delegates.

ILA’s Announcement

Through a Facebook post, the ILA reported on its meeting and the strike support from within it:

NORTH BERGEN, NJ (September 5, 2024) Nearly 300 International Longshoremen’s Association Wage Scale Delegates ended their two-day Wage Scale Meetings today in New Jersey by unanimously supporting International President Harold J. Daggett’s call for a coastwide strike at ports from Maine to Texas on October 1, 2024, if a new agreement with United States Maritime Alliance is not reached at that time.

On the second day of meetings in Teaneck, New Jersey attended by ILA Wage Scale Delegates from the 13 port areas that are part of the ILA-USMX Agreements, ILA Executive Vice President Dennis A. Daggett laid out the union’s Strike Mobilization Plan that would be enacted if a new agreement is not reached by the September 30th expiration of the current six-year agreement.

“Sisters and Brothers, it will be monumental if we are without a new Master Contract to replace the current one that expires in three weeks and four days from today,” ILA President Daggett told his ILA Wage Scale delegates. “We must be prepared if we have to hit the streets at 12:01 on Tuesday, October 1, 2024.”

Forced to Strike? Oh, Please

“If we have to hit the streets” is an interesting choice of words from ILA President Daggett. No one is forcing the union to strike.

The ILA began threatening this enormous disruption to U.S. supply chains, which would impact international shipping throughout the world, all the way back in November of last year. Forget going into negotiations in good faith. That was setting up negotiations with a threat. Rather than an amicable start to the negotiation period ahead of the contract expiration, the ILA brought hostility.

But maybe that’s because the union has reasonable asks that the USMX won’t even consider. Well, what is the ILA asking for at the threat of a strike?

The ILA is demanding an enormous raise for dockworkers – $30 more per hour by the end of a new 6-year contract. At that point, the USMX would be paying literally billions of dollars more per year in wages alone. The amount is reported to be between a 76 and 77% hike in wages. That’s before any increases in benefits or any other negotiation points. I wonder how many businesses could afford to increase their employee costs by that much?

It’s a big ask. But, hey, we’re talking about contract negotiations. Go ahead and start with a high ask. Employers will offer something lower than what you want. At the end of negotiations, you end with something reasonable in the middle. Except there’s been a lack of negotiations. Why?

Because the ILA cancelled contract negotiations that were set to start back in June. How is there supposed to be a new contract by your strike deadline if you won’t actually negotiate? No, ILA. You don’t “have to hit the streets.” You’re the ones driving the strike threat and have been from the beginning.

Prepare for Strike & Negotiate Demands?

There were two public purposes for the meeting the ILA just had: lay out wage demands and prepare to strike.

The two-day meeting was scheduled for September 4th & 5th, but the union announced the meeting’s completion early in the day today (September 5th).

The ILA’s announcement lines up with what it had previously said the meeting was to accomplish. However, there was an interesting bit of wording in the long title it placed on the Facebook reporting about the meeting. The title was so long, I initially mistook it for the union beginning to write about the meeting:

ILA Wage Scale Delegates Conclude Two-Day Contract Negotiations With Unanimous Support For International President Harold J. Daggett To Call For October 1st Strike

The title uses “Contract Negotiations” in labeling the meeting. That could sound a little misleading. This was not a meeting with the USMX to be actual contract negotiations with employers. It sounds like the meeting may have included negotiations with the union delegates on the wage increases the ILA is demanding of the USMX. When the ILA announced it would have this meeting, it said it would “present its proposed contract terms to its wage scale committee.”

It appears the ILA wage delegates from the various local port factions of the union had a chance to negotiate changes in those demands. With the meeting ending so early on the 5th (along with laying out a “strike mobilization plan”), it seems unlikely “negotiations” made much, if any, change in what the ILA is demanding.

Conclusion

The ILA strike threat level was already high despite a small amount of relief from the union’s recent filing for federal mediation. Unfortunately, the threat level only spikes with the conclusion of the ILA’s two-day meeting of laying out for union delegates its wage demands and plans for executing the strike.

The ILA’s rhetoric appears to be intensifying as well, as hard as that is to imagine. A short Supply Chain article quoted some of the most recent words from the ILA:

In a video released at the start of the week’s meetings, ILA president Harold Daggett said that the union “most definitely will hit the streets on October 1 if we don’t get the kind of contract we deserve.”

“Mark my words, we’ll shut them down,” he stressed.

Shippers should be preparing for the union to strike. The ILA is certainly preparing to do so. But let’s hope something prevents the strike in the next three weeks.