Longshoreman Strike; Labor’s Necessary Energy
The resounding success of the ILA strike proves that unionization is the path to winning back working class power after decades of regressive neo-liberalism.
Despite all the horrific and nauseating news this year as the election approaches, one story represents a positive reversal for us. The strike carried out by the Longshoreman caught headlines as over 47,000 union members walked off the job on October 1st after their contract expired. The ILA union, which they are a part of, was founded in 1892 and represents some 85,000 workers. These dock workers come from about a hundred ports up and down the East Coast. Their contracts last six years, and this is the first time they have gone on strike since 1977. Led by union President Harold J. Daggett, they demanded a 77% increase in pay over the length of the contract. They also demanded an agreement to ban or reduce the reliance on automation in the industry, threatening their jobs and driving up competition among laborers. The shipping companies and the port operators who employ them are affiliated with the United States Maritime Alliance, who consist of massive corporations such as Mærsk, Mediterranean Shipping Co., Evergreen Maritime, APM Terminals, CMA CGM, Hapag-Lloyd and many others. The board representing the US Maritime Alliance has eight of the fifteen seats held by foreign shipping companies. The initial offer given to the workers was only a 32% raise over the period with no influence changes to automation. After only a couple of days, on October 3rd, the union accepted terms to suspend the strike until January 15th and secured a historic 61.5% raise over the six-year contract. The strike will resume next year if they are unable to come to an agreement regarding the use of automation. In their October 1st statement, the ILA said that they still want protection from outsourcing jobs to non-union workers or automated systems, protection of healthcare benefits, and container royalty payments to supplement wages.
The ILA is also rightly concerned with the price gouging by the shipping corporations, not just their own wages. In their September 30th statement, they said, “[shipping corporations] are now charging $30,000 for a full container, a whopping increase from $6,000 per container just a few weeks ago. In just a short time, they went from 6k, to 18k, then 24k and now $30,000. It’s unheard of and they are doubling their $30,000 fee stuffing the same container from multiple shippers. They are killing the customers.” Corporations that are able to join together and price gouge are a massive driver of inflation, especially since the shipping industry directly affects every sector of the economy. When a shipping company inflates its prices while still taking massive profits, it means the real wages of all workers decline. We have seen this happen over the course of decades as neoliberalism has robbed workers of billions, if not trillions, in stolen wages. Since neoliberalism became cemented in the 1980s, productivity has completely disconnected from wages, where a worker in 2024 makes only 29% more in wages than a worker in 1979 but produces, on average, 81% more. That metric doesn’t even account for real wages. The real wage of an average worker in 1979 was $13.88 (adjusted from 2014 to 2024 dollars), in 2014, it was $14.50, a trend that hasn’t changed in the last decade. Over the same period, the real minimum wage fell from $11.84 in 1979 to today’s $7.25, which hasn’t been adjusted in fifteen years. That means a minimum wage worker today earns 39% less than they would have working the same job 45 years ago.
There were concerns that if a strike continued, there would have been serious consequences for the economy. The non-profit MITRE analyzed the effects of an ongoing ILA strike earlier this year. They published a paper that found 51% of the total US port capacity is located on the East Coast, which was affected by the ILA strike. They found that 34 different commodities import 90% or more of their volume through East Coast ports. A different study by the Anderson Economic Group showed that total economic loss could be over $2.1 billion after one week of striking. After a week on strike, there could’ve been severe shortages in perishable goods like fruits and vegetables. Analysts at JPMorgan said such a strike could cost 6% of national daily GPD, amounting to $6 billion per day, and it could take six days to clear the backlog.
Many were worried that if this strike went on longer, it could’ve impacted the election, which is difficult to measure in the first place. Biden made it clear from the start that he refused to use the Taft-Hartley Act to break up the strike against pressure across the political spectrum, notably the Associated Builders and Contractors trade organization and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The right wing went especially hard on this as the New York Post doxxed Harrold Daggett’s home address to pocketwatch him. Apparently, according to these conservatives, a millionaire union President who is fighting for his coworkers’ wages is the problem, but not the multi-billionaires who own these shipping companies being stingy about raises. To be fair, the ILA is not perfect. Unions ought to be structured horizontally, and their President shouldn’t be taking home a $901,000 salary, but the fact remains that the ILA is on our side of the class struggle. Even if the members of their union do lean right-wing (evidence doesn’t necessarily support that) and considering that they don't speak about class struggle, they are still on our side of this struggle.
Sometimes centrists and liberals have had this backward, urging the break up of the strike because of the potential effects on the economy and because ‘those workers are already paid enough.’ Even more egregious is the idea from the liberal cohort that Biden should’ve stopped the strike so the economic impact wouldn’t affect the Harris campaign. To that, it is simply shameful to throw fellow members of the working class under the bus for the sake of a politician. The proper response is unconditional support for the working class people fighting for fair pay. If Harris or Biden were to oppose this collective action, the consequences would be their own fault; it’s that simple. Labor action is a very popular issue, as 71% of Americans support unions. However, unions are very unpopular with corporations that seek to exploit workers for cheaper wages. A couple of years ago, the PRO Act stalled in the Senate because corporations are allowed to bribe politicians with donations.
This strike was a resounding win for labor in our country, and Harold Daggett brought a necessary intensity to this class struggle. Daggett knows that corporate greed is the problem in our society and that the biggest thing separating his fellow workers and fair pay is a fight with the corporations. In a speech, he proclaimed, “We’re going to show these greedy bastards you can’t survive without us!” And this is the energy that we as laborers need to carry. Capital relies on competition between workers. In fact, capital actively pins labor in a battle against itself. When laborers must work to survive, they must compete not only to stay employed (the only means of survival) but also compete to be the most obedient. Only when labor comes together to use their power in numbers can they take back what is stolen from them by the capitalist class. Daggett relates this by mentioning the shipping companies’ CEOs receiving multi-billion dollar bonuses. He talks of the $400 billion in profits these companies deliver to their shareholders while their wages barely rise. Daggett doesn’t go much deeper than that, but the essence is still the same as Marx laid it out over a century ago. Under capitalism, a worker’s labor power is simply a commodity that is appropriated by capital to produce profit. It is then impossible for a worker to earn the actual value their labor power has produced because if it did, the capitalist corporation would fail for not earning profit. In the same way, a machine that cannot produce enough value to exceed its purchase price would not exist. Thus, a laborer who does not replace their wage and then some would not exist. This means that the profits earned by corporations are the surplus value that has been appropriated from labor. That surplus value will never be returned to the workers unless they join together and fight back with collective action. Though capital has the majority of power in this relationship, labor has the unrealized power in their numbers. We hope to bring about a world without profit, where all workers earn the true value of what they produce.
The days the workers went on strike were rainy and miserable, but they came out victorious. I’d argue that the strike could’ve been bigger and louder. Class struggle needs to come to the forefront of every American’s mind. Rather than unfalsifiable conspiracy thinking and shadow government ramblings, we ought to start thinking about how to take back power from the ultra-wealthy. The way to do that is through organizing. The longshoreman and every large union should be striking during every contract negotiation, even for just a day. Force the capitalist class to concede power to the workers and remind them who really makes the economy work. The longshoreman didn’t reach their goal yet; they accepted a lesser raise to put the strike on hold, but– they shouldn’t accept less. Especially after all they’ve done to prove how the capitalist-owning class in their industry takes billions in profit while failing to negotiate raises with them. If the corporations were willing to agree so quickly, these raises were not a threat to their bottom line in the first place. Eventually, they will have to feel the heat, and unions should bring that heat. The ILA and every union should take advantage of a strike’s media attention to remind the rest of the working class that they can organize too. The best line from the media coverage was when a reporter told Daggett, “You are going to grind the economy to a halt.” he didn’t accept that; “No, not us, they are! Don’t spin it now.” Everyone needs to have that understanding– it isn’t the workers demanding their fair share shutting the economy down, it’s the billion-dollar corporations that won’t pay them.
To think otherwise is, in essence, victim blaming. And I know the word ‘victim’ may seem odd in this context. We are so conditioned, in the richest nation on Earth, to be blind to the oppression of the capitalist class. Someone may say; how am I oppressed when I have a roof over my head and earn a decent wage? You are still being stolen from. And while you yourself may be doing fine, you cannot remain ignorant of the immense exploitation that capitalism exerts on the Global South. This exploitation causes enormous suffering, which is ignored, excused, or justified in one way or another. Even the most well-meaning people are still ignorant of the fact that America is wealthy today largely because of imperialism and neo-colonialism. That is why, as Americans, we have an even greater responsibility to fight this class struggle. That fact scares a lot of people; they often have something to lose. It’s much easier to pretend that your wages aren’t being stolen and that the ‘American Dream’ is ‘still possible,’ but that doesn’t change our reality. That American Dream was never for you and me. It’s for the ruling class.
They demanded the ports be prevented from modernizing.
How is that a win for society?