ILA Strike Watch 2025: Does ILA’s Praise for Trump’s Labor Secretary NOM Bode Well for Deal & No Strike?
With less than a month and a half to go before the deal deadline to prevent another dockworker strike shutting down U.S. East and Gulf Coast ports, negotiations remain halted between the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX). And there’s been no easing of the tensions between the parties. In fact, given the ILA’s new Facebook cover photo reading “IF IT’S A FIGHT THEY WANT, IT’S A WAR THEY’RE GOING TO GET,” the situation only appears to be getting more contentious.
ILA’s most recent post, with its leadership using words like “crossroads” and “impasse” to describe the state of contract negotiations, doesn’t inspire much hope in shippers for a new master contract negotiated in time to prevent more supply chain disruption. However, a public letter ILA President Harold Daggett wrote to incoming President Trump might be cause for some optimism.
In the letter, Daggett praised President Trump for his nomination of Lori Chavez-DeRemer as Labor Secretary:
Dear President Trump:
On behalf of the 85,000-member International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA), I want to commend you on your nomination of Oregon Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer to lead the United States Department of Labor. We applaud your selection and will urge our U.S. Senate to confirm her as Secretary of Labor.
As a member of a Congress, Rep. Chavez-DeRemer built a strong pro-worker record protecting their rights to organize. We look forward to working with Ms. Chavez-DeRemer and your Administration on legislation and policies that protect workers rights, safety, and honors their commitment to building a strong economy for our great nation.
As you prepare to take the oath of office as our 47th President in January, the ILA offers our support to you as our returning Commander in Chief and Rep. Chavez-DeRemer, your nominee for U.S. Secretary of Labor.
May God Bless you and God Bless America.
Sincerely,
Harold J. Daggett
International President
The union showing support to President Trump and his nominee for Labor Secretary doesn’t mean it will suddenly turn a page in its negotiations with the USMX. However, the friendly nature of the letter does show a willingness of the union to work with the incoming Trump Administration. Daggett goes so far as to explicitly offer the union’s support to President Trump.
And this is not the first time ILA President Daggett has shown support for President Trump, lending even more to optimism for the union working with the next administration. While the union didn’t endorse Trump for president, Daggett did call on union membership to pray for President Trump and victims at his rally of the July assassination attempt on Trump. Daggett went on to speak positively about a meeting he’d had with President Trump back in November of 2023 and posted a picture of himself and President Trump shaking hands.
The January 15th deadline for a new ILA contract comes only a little more than a week after President Trump is to be inaugurated as America’s 47th president. The last thing President Trump, who was elected in large part due to the economy being a top concern for voters, would want for the start of his second presidential term is a hugely economically-damaging disruption to U.S. supply chains.
Negotiating deals is a strength of President Trump’s. That’s been born out time and again during Trump’s previous presidency with trade and peace deals from the USMCA and Phase One Trade Deal with China to the Abraham Accords. There’s also his long career as a high-profile businessman. Heck, he even wrote the book on the subject with The Art of the Deal back in 1987.
If the ILA is willing to work with the Trump Administration, as it sounds like it is, shippers have good reason to believe a deal could be reached without another strike shutting down the ports.
Meanwhile, the union shouldn’t think that it will get a raw deal either. President Trump’s nomination of Chavez-DeRemer as Labor Secretary does show regard for workers and unions. By all accounts, the ILA is correct in saying Chavez-DeRemer has a “strong pro-worker record protecting their rights to organize.”
The Epoch Times did a roundup article on President Trump’s cabinet picks that gave a brief bio of each nominee, including Chavez-DeRemer:
Lori Chavez-DeRemer, Labor Secretary
Trump has chosen Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-Ore.) to lead the U.S. Department of Labor.
Chavez-DeRemer has represented Oregon’s Fifth Congressional District since 2022, but lost her reelection bid in the Democrat-leaning district earlier this month.
She has gained a reputation as a centrist. As a lawmaker, she has supported pro-union legislation, such as the Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act and the Richard L. Trumka Protecting the Right to Organize Act.
“Lori has worked tirelessly with both business and labor to build America’s workforce, and support the hardworking men and women of America,” Trump wrote in his statement announcing the nomination.
Ultimately, the ILA has drawn hard lines in the sand when it comes to negotiations. The biggest sticking point right now in preventing a deal getting done between the union and the USMX is automation. I don’t know what bending will bring the two parties together on this issue. But the union’s cooperative attitude toward the Trump Administration bodes well for a deal getting done.
Leading up to the old September 30th deadline, the ILA made it clear it wanted no mediation from the Biden Administration. Not surprisingly, we saw a strike on October 1st. If the union is amicable toward the Trump Administration and open to mediation from it, we should be less likely to see another strike on January 16th.
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