Photo by Michael Petersen: https://tinyurl.com/4bdn2sju
The Biden-Harris administration has found itself in a bind over what to do with the nearly 50,000 International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) members protesting automation and wages on the East Coast ports.
Beginning on Tuesday, the workers have been on strike, after failing to reach an agreement with their employer on a new contract. This historic action, not seen since 1977, has put at risk some 43%-49% of all U.S. imports, including billions of trade dollars. Among demands for a wage increase of 50%, are calls for USMX (United States Maritime Alliance) to explicitly rule out moves to automate segments of the workforce. Harold Daggett, the wealthy ILA union boss, has a bargaining record absurd enough to make the Luddites blush. Indeed, if Daggett had his way in the year 1440, he’d have halted the development of the printing press – such is his divine hatred for any form of technological advancement.
Only Daggett’s hatred for innovation clearly does not extend to his 2022-model Bentley or the state-of-the-art 76-foot yacht which he sold for nearly $4 million in 2021. In fact, working class hero Daggett has an annual salary of over $850,000 plus benefits, a far cry from the port workers he purports to represent. Despite being such a beneficiary of the system, he has vowed to “cripple” the US economy if the ILA’s demands are not met. So how is it that someone like Daggett, who clearly just has his own interests at heart, can derail an entire industry?
President Joe Biden has routinely demonstrated a desire to bend over backwards for union bosses, crippling supply chains and increasing inflation. In September of 2022, the Biden Harris administration’s pick for the National Mediation Board, Deidre Hamilton, stonewalled negotiations between national railroad workers and their employers. Hamilton’s NMB backed the rushed release of the workers and the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) without the completion of the mandatory impact statement as to the damage such a strike would have on the U.S. economy.
This move by Biden’s appointee jeopardized $2 billion of freight, with rail making up some 40 percent of long-distance freight volume. This level of recklessness does not benefit workers or American consumers, who pay the price through higher cost of goods. It does however benefit actors like Daggett who no doubt saw the Biden-Harris administration turn a blind eye to the abandonment of standard enterprise bargaining practices in favor of greater entrenched power to union bosses.
A study by Conversion Capital found that domineering labor union strikes can supercharge employer-led investments in automation. In the ‘60s and ‘70s, the ham-fisted dockworkers strike demanding greater pay had the unintended consequence of spurring the development of containerization, reducing the need for manual labor and resulting in mass casualties at ports along the west coast. Yet when you have an administration that does its best to limit technological advancements in things such as AI, it’s a green light for bosses like Daggett to hold all the cards in a game he is bound to win.
A prospective Harris Walz administration would be no different, arguably worse still. Her signaled support for the PRO Act which failed to pass the Senate last year, would be the biggest intrusion by the government into the labor market in living memory. Harris’ PRO act would invalidate the right to work protections that have allowed people the freedom to decline unionization. It would establish California’s ABC test, removing the ability for private contractors in the gig economy to be their own boss. It would remove secret ballot protections, allowing for union thugs to intimidate workers into backing unionization. Alarmingly, this act would also violate workers’ personal privacy, handing over addresses, phone numbers, emails and other sensitive information to bosses like Daggett.
When Joe Biden and Kamala Harris coddle union bosses without regard to the harm done to working families, more work stoppages and supply chain disruptions are bound to happen. This week, it’s union bully Harold Daggett taking center stage with his goal of “crippling” the U.S. economy. American consumers can feel sympathy for dockworkers who too are facing the effects of the Biden-Harris administration’s rampant inflation, but soon the port strikes will hit all Americans with even greater inflation and the inability to find their favorite products on the shelves.
