FLORIDA – A possible labor strike could slow down the delivery of food, clothes and other everyday items to the United States if The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) can’t come to an agreement on a new labor contract by Monday at 11:59 p.m.
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An office in Tallyrand is the headquarters for the International Longshoremen’s Association Local 1408. Their president, Warren Smith, has worked as a longshoreman for 27 years. The local has about 1800 members.
Smith talked about what he has to deal with as the president.
“I am sitting by the phone anxiously waiting hoping that our partners, our maritime partners come to the table with a fair deal,” Smith said.
If the USMX doesn’t agree to a new contract with the ILA by 11:59 p.m. Monday, thousands of members along the East Coast will strike at 12:01 Tuesday morning.
“This is not something that we take lightly,” Smith said.
The contracts have layers, there is the international contract, known as the master contract, the district contract from Virginia to Tampa, Florida, and local agreements.
Harold J. Daggett, the International President of the 85,000-member union could call a strike tonight.
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“If the international president orders a strike to begin at midnight, we will begin picketing at midnight,” Daggett said.
Other union groups of longshoremen have negotiated for better pay. Rod Sullivan, a maritime lawyer, explained.
“There have been no face-to-face negotiations between the ILA and the USMX since June,” Sullivan said. So part of what the ILA is looking for is the West Coast equivalent of the ILA got a 32% wage increase last year. The Great Lakes division got a 40% wage increase and the East Coast ILA wants an equivalent wage increase to what the West Coast and the Great Lakes did. And the USMX is saying it’s simply too much. They can’t afford it.”
But the longshoremen don’t believe the USMX claims and said the USMX is making “billion dollar profits”.
Jim Mirabella, a Jacksonville University professor of precision sciences and operations said the strike would have a financial impact on everyday life.
“It’s massive,” Mirabella said. “I looked this up just to make sure I got the statistic correct. 56% of all of the shipping containers that come to the U.S. on the East Coast from Massachusetts down to Texas so that’s over a million shipping containers a day and one day of a strike is estimated could set us back a week because of the ripple effect,” Mirabella said.
Mirabella said exported produce, clothes, cars, car parts and even construction supplies could be harder to get and increase in price. The last time there was a strike of this magnitude was in 1977 for 45 days.
However, the government could force both sides to negotiate through the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act, but President Joe Biden said “no” when asked if he planned to intervene.
“The administration could flat out say no, you’re going to stay active for the next 80 days, you’re not going to do this,” Mirabella said. “Well our current leadership won’t even touch it but its kind of a double-edged sword.”
Smith said he hopes the public understands that no one wants to strike and impact the community and they have always been here to serve the community.
“During the pandemic, this local in of itself lost about 50 members because we can’t social distance,” Smith said. “We are in the second most dangerous industry in America.”
Smith said they did everything they could to serve the community and now they want things to be fair for them.
“What we are asking for is fair wages, we are asking for a contract that does not allow us to be replaced with robots,” Smith said. “After all that we have given, we deserve to be insulated from AI, we deserve to be able to retire with dignity.”
And if the strike occurs, Smith said military needs and passenger ships will continue to be serviced.
News4JAX also reached out to our local port, JAXPORT. It is not part of the agreement, which is signed between the ILA union and the ocean carriers and terminal operators who use ILA labor. So it will not comment on the potential strike. However, JAXPORT would be impacted if the strike occurs with:
- One international terminal operator (SSA Jacksonville) would be closed starting Oct. 1. The rest will remain open.
- We could see a reduction in our international container and vehicle volumes during the strike.
The International Longshoremen’s Association made the following statement:
The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) reports that United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) continues to block the path toward a settlement on a new Master Contract by refusing ILA’s demands for a fair and decent contract and seems intent on causing a strike at all ports from Maine to Texas beginning in almost 12 hours.
The Ocean Carriers represented by USMX want to enjoy rich billion-dollar profits that they are making in 2024, while they offer ILA Longshore Workers an unacceptable wage package that we reject. ILA longshore workers deserve to be compensated for the important work they do keeping American commerce moving and growing.
It’s disgraceful that most of these foreign-owned shipping companies are engaged in a ‘Make and Take’ operation: They want to make their billion-dollar profits at United States ports, and off the backs of American ILA longshore workers, and take those earnings out of this country and into the pockets of foreign conglomerates. Meanwhile, ILA dedicated longshore workers continue to be crippled by inflation due to USMX’s unfair wage packages.
In addition, the shippers are gouging their customers that result in increased costs to American consumers. They 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.
The International Longshoremen’s Association
The ILA said it will continue to update the media as information becomes available.
JAXPORT is not a signatory on the USMX master contract. The port explained that the agreement is between ocean carriers and terminal operators who use ILA labor.
For that reason, the port said it does not believe it would be “appropriate for us to participate in interviews regarding the potential strike.”
JAXPORT released the following statement:
JAXPORT is closely monitoring the situation regarding the ILA agreement with the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) and we remain in close contact with the terminal operators who use ILA labor.
We expect the strike to impact about one-third of JAXPORT’s business, particularly international container volumes operated by SSA Jacksonville (Read SSA Jacksonville’s Contingency Plan), as well as international vehicle volumes.
The remaining two-thirds of JAXPORT’s business, including the majority of Puerto Rico cargo, will continue normally. In addition, none of JAXPORT’s 172 direct employees are ILA members, so all workers directly employed by JAXPORT will continue to work, which means all JAXPORT main gates and administrative functions will remain open regular operating hours. However, because JAXPORT’s terminal operators establish their own operating hours at their gated facilities, customers are encouraged to contact their terminal operator directly to confirm their specific operating hours and any operational impacts related to the potential strike. Contact information for JAXPORT’s terminal operators is available here
We are working closely with our industry and law enforcement partners to ensure the safety and security of all port users in case of a strike.
The ILA in Jacksonville has been essential to our port’s success for many decades. We will continue to follow the contract discussions and work with our industry partners to support their needs as best we can during this time.
JAXPORT