President-elect Donald Trump offered his support to dock workers on Thursday as a looming mid-January strike deadline threatens to bring commercial shipping on the East and Gulf Coasts to a halt days before he takes office.
Get a curated selection of 10 of our best stories in your inbox every weekend.
In a post on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump said that he had just finished meeting with leaders of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA), the union that represents some 47,000 dockworkers, and signaled to international shippers that their use of automation could cost them.
“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 wrote.
Automation is a main sticking point in contract negotiations between the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX), which represents shippers, and the ILA union, which went on strike for three days in early October. The union paused their strike when the Biden administration helped broker a deal that extended the current contract through Jan. 15.
A longer strike in the fall could have further weakened Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, prompting the Biden administration to push for an extension in bargaining between shippers and the union.
🏛️
Follow Politics
The president-elect’s statement in support of the union is highly unusual for a Republican. Though Trump made inroads with unions and the labor movement this year and recently announced plans to nominate a labor secretary who has broken with the GOP to support pro-union legislation. Trump’s budding relationship with organized labor — combined with his tariff proposals — are also causing widespread anxiety in the business community.
“We appreciate and value President-elect Trump’s statement on the importance of American ports,” a statement from USMX said Thursday evening. “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. … To achieve this, we need modern technology that is proven to improve worker safety, boost port efficiency, increase port capacity, and strengthen our supply chains.”
The ILA did not immediately respond to a request for comment but has previously said that it sees new technology as something that would cost workers their jobs.
Trump said in his statement Thursday that he met with Harold Daggett, ILA’s president. The union had previously confirmed the two share a relationship that goes back decades and Daggett visited Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, last year.
“There has been a lot of discussion having to do with ‘automation’ on United States docks,” Trump wrote in his post Thursday. “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, in this case, our Longshoremen. Foreign companies have made a fortune in the U.S. by giving them access to our markets.”
An extended strike beginning in January could raise prices for households and businesses and wreak widespread havoc on the global economy. A long-term walkout would be the biggest disruption to the flow of goods in and out of the country since the height of the pandemic. Even a short-lived work stoppage would snarl shipping and create havoc in supply chains for weeks. Cargo ranging from cars to electronics, from food to furniture, would be stuck on ships offshore. Each day a strike lasts could cost the U.S. economy up to $1 billion, according to analysts.
Striking dockworkers agreed to go back to work in October after reaching a tentative agreement with port operators for a 62 percent wage increase that extended the current contract, providing more time to bargain over remaining issues. The ILA had initially demanded 77 percent raises but lowered its demands.
The union’s last contract, negotiated in 2018, included raises that have not kept pace with inflation. The union’s president has accused the maritime alliance of trying to “lowball” workers.
Get a curated selection of 10 of our best stories in your inbox every weekend.
In a post on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump said that he had just finished meeting with leaders of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA), the union that represents some 47,000 dockworkers, and signaled to international shippers that their use of automation could cost them.
“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 wrote.
Automation is a main sticking point in contract negotiations between the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX), which represents shippers, and the ILA union, which went on strike for three days in early October. The union paused their strike when the Biden administration helped broker a deal that extended the current contract through Jan. 15.
A longer strike in the fall could have further weakened Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, prompting the Biden administration to push for an extension in bargaining between shippers and the union.
🏛️
Follow Politics
The president-elect’s statement in support of the union is highly unusual for a Republican. Though Trump made inroads with unions and the labor movement this year and recently announced plans to nominate a labor secretary who has broken with the GOP to support pro-union legislation. Trump’s budding relationship with organized labor — combined with his tariff proposals — are also causing widespread anxiety in the business community.
“We appreciate and value President-elect Trump’s statement on the importance of American ports,” a statement from USMX said Thursday evening. “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. … To achieve this, we need modern technology that is proven to improve worker safety, boost port efficiency, increase port capacity, and strengthen our supply chains.”
The ILA did not immediately respond to a request for comment but has previously said that it sees new technology as something that would cost workers their jobs.
Trump said in his statement Thursday that he met with Harold Daggett, ILA’s president. The union had previously confirmed the two share a relationship that goes back decades and Daggett visited Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, last year.
“There has been a lot of discussion having to do with ‘automation’ on United States docks,” Trump wrote in his post Thursday. “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, in this case, our Longshoremen. Foreign companies have made a fortune in the U.S. by giving them access to our markets.”
An extended strike beginning in January could raise prices for households and businesses and wreak widespread havoc on the global economy. A long-term walkout would be the biggest disruption to the flow of goods in and out of the country since the height of the pandemic. Even a short-lived work stoppage would snarl shipping and create havoc in supply chains for weeks. Cargo ranging from cars to electronics, from food to furniture, would be stuck on ships offshore. Each day a strike lasts could cost the U.S. economy up to $1 billion, according to analysts.
Striking dockworkers agreed to go back to work in October after reaching a tentative agreement with port operators for a 62 percent wage increase that extended the current contract, providing more time to bargain over remaining issues. The ILA had initially demanded 77 percent raises but lowered its demands.
The union’s last contract, negotiated in 2018, included raises that have not kept pace with inflation. The union’s president has accused the maritime alliance of trying to “lowball” workers.
