Trump Backs US dockworkers poised to strike over automation

Laura Curtis, Bloomberg News on Dec 12, 2024

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President-elect Donald Trump met with the leaders of the International Longshoremen’s Association on Thursday and voiced support for the dockworkers union that shut East and Gulf coast ports in October and may strike again in just over a month.

“I’ve studied automation, and know just about everything there is to know about it. The amount of money saved is nowhere near the distress, hurt, and harm it causes for American Workers,” Trump said in a social media post Thursday after meeting with President Harold Daggett and his son, Executive Vice President Dennis Daggett.

An ILA strike shut every major container port from Houston to Miami to Boston for three days in October, before the union agreed to return to work in exchange for a 61.5% raise over its next six-year contract. The temporary deal with the foreign-owned shipping companies and terminal operators represented by the US Maritime Alliance was brokered under intense pressure from the Biden administration and left the thornier issue of automation on the bargaining table.

But the two sides have declared an impasse over the use of semi-automated cranes at port terminals after meeting for two days in November, threatening another stoppage when the temporary extension expires on Jan. 15, just five days before Trump’s inauguration. Both groups have issued statements with increasingly fiery rhetoric over the past two weeks.

Automated machinery is expensive and will constantly have to be replaced, Trump said, adding he hopes the foreign-owned shipping companies “will understand how important this issue is for me.”

“For the great privilege of accessing our markets, these foreign companies should hire our incredible American Workers, instead of laying them off, and sending those profits back to foreign countries,” Trump said.

The current contract allows for the use of semi-automated technology like the rail-mounted gantry cranes that are already in use at some ILA-operated terminals.

The USMX, as the employers’ group is known, has said the technology at issue does not harm longshore employment, and such modernization is necessary to keep US ports — and the broad economy — competitive.

“It’s clear President-elect Trump, USMX, and the ILA all share the goal of protecting and adding good-paying American jobs at our ports,” the USMX said in a statement following Trump’s post. “We need modern technology that is proven to improve worker safety, boost port efficiency, increase port capacity, and strengthen our supply chains.”

(With assistance from Justin Sink.)