Union President regarding the American ports strike: “I do not play games”

The head of the union representing striking port workers said major U.S. ports will remain closed until wage demands are met.

Harold Daggett, president of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA), made the pledge during a sit-in in New Jersey on Tuesday, where tens of thousands of port workers on the East and Gulf coasts walked out in an effort to win a better labor deal.

“We will fight for this and we will win, otherwise this port will never open again,” he said. “I’m not playing games here.”

Companies are preparing for the possibility of prolonged port closures, which threatens to cause damage to global trade and the American economy.

President Joe Biden has so far rejected calls from some of the nation’s largest business groups to use federal authority to reopen ports for 80 days, and has suspended the strike to provide a cooling-off period for further negotiations.

“It is only fair that workers, who are putting themselves at risk during the pandemic to keep ports open, should see a significant increase in their wages as well,” Biden said.

“Now is not the time for shipping companies to refuse to negotiate fair pay for these essential workers while they are making record profits.”

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump also supported the striking port workers.

“American workers should be able to negotiate for better wages, especially since shipping companies are mostly foreign-flagged ships,” he said in a statement.

The strike, the ILA’s first since 1977, halted container traffic through 14 of the country’s busiest ports, including New York, Georgia and Texas.

Experts estimate that the ports handle more than a third of U.S. imports and exports. Disturbances may delay the delivery of goods to businesses and consumers.

The president said officials would be alert for signs of unfairly high prices in the event of a potential shortage.

Talks on a new deal had stalled for several months before the strike, but the US Maritime Alliance (USMX), which represents shipping companies and port associations, said the two sides had begun exchanging proposals again.

Under the 2018 contract that expired Monday, dockworkers received a base hourly wage of between $20 and $39, plus other benefits, including royalties tied to the movement of containers.

USMX said its latest offer would boost wages by nearly 50%, triple company contributions to retirement and improve health care, among other perks.

The organization said the offer exceeded “every recent union settlement” and described the current standoff as “absolutely inevitable.”

“We look forward to hearing from the union about how to get back to the table and actually negotiate, which is the only way to reach a solution,” she added.

However, Mr Daggett of the Israel Labor League said there had been “nothing” so far to bring the union and companies together to end the strike.

He said he was willing to keep the ports closed until the companies agreed to increase hourly wages by $5 for each year of the contract. The union, which has about 47,000 active members according to federal filings, is seeking protections against automation.

“I will fight for this because these greedy companies are making billions of dollars and don’t want to participate,” he said. “I want my members to be taken care of for the rest of their lives and that’s why we’re here.”

If prolonged, the pause is expected to lead to higher prices and shortages of goods in the United States, with shipping delays and other impacts spreading around the world.

“We are now seeing that ships are starting to anchor outside the ports waiting to see what will happen,” said Anne-Sophie Friborg, vice president of Zincargo Shipping, which organizes shipments for exporters and importers.

“The disruption will be huge if the strike continues,” she added.

Hamid Moghadam, CEO of Prologis, one of the world’s largest warehouse companies and owner of companies such as Amazon, said that while the strike was not a shock, it would “nevertheless” hurt the economy.

“This will interfere with the proper functioning of the flow of goods,” he told the BBC.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said there were already 100,000 containers waiting to be unloaded in the New York area, and 35 more ships were expected to arrive this week.

Danny Reynolds, the 93-year-old owner of Stevenson’s Clothing Store in Elkhart, Indiana, said he paid extra to expedite shipments of jackets and coats into the country before the strike.

But about 25% of its inventory has not yet arrived, and it has been unloaded. He said he was very concerned about potential delivery days for special order wedding dresses for weddings in November and December.

“What concerns us is that we have special order merchandise for people’s wedding days that could be stuck on a ship unable to reach us. This is something that is difficult to explain to a potential bride,” he said.

He added that about 75% of his goods are routed through East Coast ports. He explained that while he expected his company to be able to operate until the end of the year, he feared the broader impact.

“I think the consequences for the economy could be devastating if this continues,” he suggested, adding that he wanted to see the president intervene.

“I think it’s too late, quite frankly, for the Biden administration to sit at the table with them and see what can’t be done to get these things open again.”