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October 2, 2024 - 8:45pm
When the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) went on strike on Tuesday, the union not only shut down commercial ports across the Eastern seaboard. It also added to the sense of widening chaos during the Biden administration. While Joe Biden ran on the promise of a “return to normalcy,” the escalating unrest of his presidency — supply-chain crunches, conflagrations abroad, and a migration crisis — has frustrated the electorate.
The last time dockworkers went on strike on the East Coast was 1977 — an era marked by inflation and economic turmoil. Due to post-pandemic inflation, dockworkers have now demanded a big pay increase, but they are also calling for hard limits on using technology to automate the shipping process. More than pay, automation could be a major sticking point in negotiations. In a recent statement, the union made its position clear: “The ILA is steadfastly against any form of automation—full or semi—that replaces jobs or historical work functions.”
While a day or two of port closures might cause only a few economic ripples, a drawn-out strike could send shockwaves throughout the American economy. In a viral clip, the ILA president boasted of the cascading economic pain a strike would cause — from closed businesses to laid-off construction workers. If they are buffeted by such an economic whirlwind, American voters could blame the White House.
Compounding these political problems, the strike places Biden — as well as Kamala Harris — in a no-win situation by dividing the Democratic coalition. An old-school Democrat from the party’s blue-collar days, Biden was relatively popular with rank-and-file union voters, at least at the beginning of his presidency. Harris, however, has yet to close the deal with many union voters. As CNN analyst Harry Enten recently observed, polling reveals that she has the lowest support from union households of any Democratic presidential nominee in decades. The recent Teamsters non-endorsement only underlines this fact.
All that adds to Democratic woes over the strike. The President could invoke the Taft-Hartley Act to intervene in the strike and open up the ports again. But doing so could push organised labour interests further away from Democrats, and Biden has insisted that he will not use Taft-Hartley. However, a refusal by the White House to take action to open up the ports could also further sour some working- and middle-class voters on the Biden-Harris administration. Because of the ILA’s dominance of East Coast and Gulf ports, this strike pits a single union against working families more generally.
The question of how to handle this strike could also point to some divisions in the Republican coalition. But currently, the GOP has mostly focused on blaming the Biden administration for letting this happen at all. Some House Republicans have argued that the President should exercise the powers of Taft-Hartley to end the strike, but the party’s message is still evolving.
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SubscribeThe Democrat Party method of giving out perks to each interest group is unsustainable. At some point, group interests irreparably conflict.
At what point does unsustainable become false? 50 years? 80? Because that’s how long it’s been sustained.
Crisis? What Crisis? As James Callaghan is supposed to have said on returning to Britain during the Winter of Discontent. With things hotting up in the Middle East and a strike by the Longshoreman’s Union as well as the flood of immigration and fentanyl it only needs Harris to say Crisis? What Crisis? to sink her chances of election. The significance of the passage of time might just come back to bite her.
Due to post-pandemic inflation, dockworkers have now demanded a big pay increase, but they are also calling for hard limits on using technology to automate the shipping process.
The irony is that striking to halt automation usually only serves to hasten it.
I would still rather trust logistics to humans.
What does that mean ?
it means no conveyor belts or forklifts I think…
If I were them I would demand becoming a significant share holder instead. You cannot hold back automation and progress forever so the best you can do is profit from it instead of striking to maintain your vulnerable position as a (wage) laborer. You get your fair share, work less and gain power.
In general this is something we have to think about. Automation and AI can be a blessing for us all but we do have to seriously restructure capitalism.
Ronald Reagan would have known what to do here.
This has been a long time coming. I became aware that these oddly name “Longshoreman” were extorting excessive wages from the US over 20 years ago. It’s one of those activities that stodd out as being very highly paid, yet not particularly difficult or skilled.
But the printing unions in the UK thought much the same until the 1980s (I’m sure some of us remember NATSOPA being incessantly in the news).
The end can’t come soon enough for these luddites ripping off the general public. Likewise the train drivers (and carriage train door closers – “because safety”) in the UK.
Sadly, there are still pockets of anti-competitive gross inefficiency and protectionism still around in the USA and UK. Famously the 1920 US “Jones Act” needlessly estricting US coastal shipping.
The union president, Harrold Daggett, owns a 7000 sq. ft. house in a ritzy New Jersey enclave. It features a 5 car garage equipped with a Bentley convertible. With his mob ties, he could have been a perfect inspiration for “The Sopranos”, complete with vanished (later found dead) witnesses and gold nugget necklaces.
And please stop with this stupid CHAPTCHA already!