Dock Strike: Another Chance for Organized Labor to Change the Future

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Richard Mellor
Afscme Local 444, retired
HEO/GED

10-1-24

 

At midnight on September 30th some 45,000 dockers, members of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) struck the East Coast ports run by the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX). This is the first East Coast dockworkers strike in 47 years. So now we have two major strikes involving industrial workers occurring at the same time. As I commented earlier, 44,000 IAM members at Boeing Corporation have been on the picket lines for two weeks.

 

On September 26^th AFL-CIO President Elizabeth Schuler, sent a letter to the Members of Congress urging them not intervene in the dock strike, “Averting a strike is the responsibility of the employers who refuse to offer I.L.A. members a contract that reflects the dignity and value of their labor,”, she wrote.  She warned the legislators that pushing Biden to invoke Taft Hartley makes resolutions less likely.

 

This has led to US President Joe Biden claiming he will not impose the Taft Hartley against the dockers as has been done in the past because, "There's collective bargaining, and I don't believe in Taft-Hartley,"  

 

Well, we’re on board with that Joe. What worker, or trade unionist supports Taft Hartley

 

Mind you, I am not convinced that Biden introducing a no strike piece of emergency legislation in December 2022 that blocked rail workers from striking and utilizing the 80-year old Taft Hartley Act are that much different when it comes down to it.  In both instances the state intervenes on the side of the bosses and profits. Congress passed the legislation and the rail workers never got to utilize their collective bargaining power then, and Liz Schuler and countless other top officials in organized labor did nothing about it.

 

Maybe in these instances a letter from the president of the AFL-CIO is standard, especially as Taft Hartley has been used against dock workers in the past. It was used against the West Coast ILWU members in 2002.

 

According to JPMorgan, the dock strike could cost the economy $5 billion a day, or about 6 percent of gross domestic product and, “More than 68 percent of all U.S. container exports and more than 56 percent of container imports flow through East and Gulf Coast ports…” New York Times 9-30-24

 

So with the IAM at Boeing and the ILA on the East Coast and Gulf Ports, we have some 80,000 workers on strike in industries crucial to the US economy and profits. It is a small example of organized labor’s power if we use it, collectively, and generalize what is essentially a class struggle. Our communities, the unorganized, the unemployed and all marginalized workers are our allies and must be drawn in. In addition,  I just noticed reading one of the articles on the strike is that the ILA has apparently agreed not to impede military shipments. If this is true it is a mistake. Most union officials today claim support for international solidarity but we can’t build it by supporting US capitalism’s endless predatory wars.

 

Organized Labor’s Power

It’s clear that those who claim organized labor is weak, that it doesn’t have the strength it once did and so on, are wrong. Anti-union laws that are designed to render union power incapable of waging a real struggle against capital are an obstacle and labor’s ability to respond is restrained by the trade union hierarchy’s refusal to challenge and violate them. The country and the big business community is run by crooks and most politicians that violate the law all the time yet the trade union officialdom is obsessed with honouring them.

 

There are a number of points to make here. One is that in preparation for the likelihood of a strike, many shipping companies have diverted goods to the West Coast ports.

 

And, as they do in the auto or any other industry, the bosses try to keep inventories stocked so that it can be weeks before the impact of a strike like this can be felt. This is a strategy for wearing down workers on the picket lines. As I commented in a previous article, we cannot be out on strike forever, and US workers are highly indebted. The mortgage companies, the landlords, the health care bosses, all will be breathing down their necks if it goes on too long.

 

Two of the major issues in the dock strike from what I understand, are wages and automation. Inflation is eating up most of the wage raises the dockers received through their previous contract. Wages are up $11% since it ended in June, but inflation is up 24%. We are all familiar with the massive increase in the cost of living.

 

One of the reasons Biden is suddenly an opponent of Taft Hartley and promises not to impose it, is we have a presidential election only a month away. This puts the dockers in a strong position to win back some of their lost wages eaten up by inflation but it is not going to be possible to stem the tide of automation at the ports. It will take more than a strike to do that and automation, like most labor saving technology, is not a bad thing; it depends which class owns it and determines its usage.

 

The West Coast dockworkers, members of the ILWU led by Harry Bridges, were faced with a similar confrontation over automation with the introduction of the shipping container. The ILWU leadership accepted a “felixible” approach as containerization improved productivity and naturally profits for the shipping bosses. And in 1960, Bridges and the ILWU leadership agreed to mechanization and a reduced workforce in return for generous job guarantees and benefits for those displaced.

 

Peter Olney explains what the deal meant as far as jobs:

“In 1960 at the advent of containers there were about 26,000 dockworkers in California, Oregon and Washington. In 1980, when containerization had been established as the dominant mode of ocean shipping, the employment number was about 11,000. By 2020 that number rose by 47% to about 15,000, but cargo volumes had increased by almost 700%”

Harry Bridges Then and Now: Monthly Review Online

 

It’s likely we will see something similar in the negotiations with the ILA.  What is likely is a deal can be made that will guarantee present workers are not affected by the automation. Some sort of sweetener will most likely be part of any proposal from the bosses that they think might be acceptable to put this issue to bed, something similar to the ILWU back then maybe. I’d welcome comments from my ILWU friends on this.

 

In the above linked Monthly Review article, Peter Olney quotes another ILWU official Robert Rohatch from Local 10 who said of automation, “Pensions and shorter working hours are the only answer to mechanization.”

 

This is an important step in dealing with labor saving technology as opposed to sending us to the dole line, or building prisons that are warehouses for those human beings capitalism and the so called free market abandons. Olney contributes to this argument explaining that, “Enhancing the pension means that more senior workers retire and clear the field for younger workers. Reducing the workday, but maintaining the same compensation, helps to deal with job attrition that inevitably follows the substitution of machines for human labor. But there is a larger question of the changing structure and character of the employers that requires the leadership and vision of union officers schooled in a materialist analysis of the industry.” (My added emphasis)

 

The situation in the US (and certainly the world) is very volatile and as I have said before, we cannot determine when and how the anger that lurks below the surface of US society will break in to the open with a vengeance. Wherever the beginnings of a mass movement against the ravages of the market develops, inside or outside of organized labor, organized labor will play a crucial role in it.

 

I am not a social scientist by any means but my view is that any gains that are made by the dockers or Boeing workers will be temporary, and likely limited to present workers and jobs for the future sacrificed. After the election the US ruling class will be in a stronger position no matter which party’s candidate sits in the Oval Office and the capitalist offensive against the working class will continue.

 

So for me the most important lesson we can take from these powerful events is, yes the bosses are powerful, but the organized labor movement is still a mighty powerful force. It is the strategy and tactics of the leadership that isolates individual strikes leaving workers to fight a foe that uses the police, the courts, the media and will resort to violence and the introduce troops to smash labor uprisings if need be; that’s our history.

 

One last point that I just noticed reading one of the articles on the strike is that the ILA has apparently agreed not impede military shipments. If this is true it is a mistake as internationalism, workers supporting workers across borders that is crucial for workers in any country fighting for a better life. The heads of organized labor in the US rarely, if ever question foreign policy or raise demands about social issues such as cutting the bloated offense budget.