Harold Daggett, president of the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA), which represents some 45,000 workers at U.S. East Coast and Gulf Coast ports, warned that time is running out to get a new labor agreement for longshoremen before the current multi-year contract expires on September 30. As such, he indicated that a strike “is becoming increasingly likely.”

He indicated that employers represented by the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) are running out of time to negotiate a new Master Contract agreement and avoid and coast-wide strike on 1 October 2024.

The ILA withdrew from the negotiations in June, just as they were about to begin, citing a dispute over the use of automation and, so far, no new negotiations have been set.

“The actions of violating our current Master Contract by some of their members caused us to cancel scheduled negotiations with USMX in early June," said Daggett. 

The ILA canceled Master Contract talks with USMX after discovering that APM Terminals (APMT) and Maersk Line were utilizing an Auto Gate system, which autonomously processes trucks without ILA labor.

The strike would affect some of the country's largest ports, such as New York and New Jersey, Virginia, and Savannah, Georgia, at the busiest shipping time of the year, when retail imports holiday season goods.

President Daggett said the ILA rank-and-file members are 100 percent behind him and are willing to “hit the streets” on 1 October 2024, if the union’s contract demands are not met.

“We will not entertain any discussions about extending the current contract, nor are we interested in any help from outside agencies to interfere in our negotiations with USMX,” said President Daggett. “This includes the Biden Administration and the Department of Labor.”

Whenever USMX resumes negotiations, the ILA said it expects shipping companies to recognize the contributions ILA longshore workers made during the pandemic, when ports remained open, allowing companies to record billion-dollar profits.

“You made millions and billions of dollars over the last five or six years driven by our hard work,” Daggett said, adding that ”don't come back and say we can't afford that kind of raise.”

Dagget refers to the Covid-19 pandemic period when shipping lines made billions of dollars in profits as freight rates soared.

Close sources say Daggett is pushing for a much larger wage increase than the 32% over six years achieved by the West Coast longshoremen.

This would be the first strike from the ILA since 1977.