dockworkers at 14 major US ports go on strike after negotiations fail

Negotiations between the unions and the United States Maritime Alliance are blocked, particularly on the question of wages.

They say they wantfight as long as necessary”. Dockworkers at 14 major American ports began walking out early on Tuesday, October 7, after last-minute negotiations between their union and the Maritime Alliance failed. The strike at the Port of Virginia, one of the affected facilities, began just after midnight, the port announced on its website, adding that discussions between the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX), which represents employers, and the ILA union “are at an impasse”.

Monday evening, the two parties announced that they had resumed their negotiations which, which began in May, stumbled over wages and automation. “Over the past 24 hours, the USMX and ILA have exchanged counter-offers over wages”assured the Maritime Alliance in a press release Monday evening, specifying that it had “improved” his proposal and requested an extension of the social agreement to continue negotiating.

The ILA union planned to strike as soon as the labor agreement expired in ports on the East Coast and the Gulf of Mexico. The USMX represents employers in 36 ports scattered along the coasts from Maine (northeast) to Texas (south), on the Gulf of Mexico, to Florida (southeast). Opposite, the dockers’ union has 85,000 members in the United States.

“ILA members deserve to be compensated for the important work they do to keep American commerce flowing and growing.”declared the union Monday morning, denouncing the “billions of dollars in profits” raked in by ports and maritime carriers, including during the Covid-19 pandemic. “Meanwhile, dedicated ILA members continue to be crippled by inflation due to unfair pay,” he continued.

The Alliance criticized the union for refusing any discussion for weeks, thereby preventing an agreement on the new six-year agreement. And Joe Biden, who presents himself as the “most union-friendly president”announced, five weeks before the presidential election, that it had no intention of intervening. However, he can activate the Taft-Hartley law – used numerous times for ILA strikes before 1977 -, allowing an 80-day moratorium to be imposed.