Earlier today, over 45,000 members of the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) went on strike against the United States Maritime Alliance(USMX), an association of various shipping employers dominated by multinational shippers.
The strike was the first time that workers in East Coast ports went on strike since 1977.
Unlike previous decades, when the presidential administration would invoke Taft-Hartley to stop a strike, the Biden Administration has vowed not to do this.
"There's collective bargaining, and I don't believe in Taft-Hartley," Biden told reporters on Monday.
With the administration unlikely to intervene in a high-profile dispute in an election year, dockworkers union leaders say they are willing to go the distance to win the strike.
"We're gonna win this fucking thing," said ILA President Harold Daggett at a rally of dockworkers earlier today. "Trust me, they can't survive too long and we're gonna get what the f*ck we deserve. Believe me."
The ILA is fighting for its survival. Automation is likely to wipe out jobs on the East Coast, and union members are fired up and motivated.
"Everybody is really pumped up," ILA VP Ken Riley, who is based in Charleston, S.C., told Payday Report. "We did a good job in hitting everybody up on what this strike was about and how many workers came before us had to do the same type of thing."
Last night, at a rally for dockworkers in Charleston, South Carolina, he said that to over 1,000 workers. This is an unprecedented level of support for union workers in South Carolina, the state with the lowest union density in the country.
"The energy is super high, super high," said Riley. "We'll fight as long, as hard as we have to."
As a Vice President of the ILA, who has been at the table with the port employers, Riley says he is impressed by the way the Biden Administration has handled things.
Biden has publicly called out the port employer association United States Maritime Alliance (USMX), whose board is dominated by foreign-flag carriers Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), Maersk, CMA CGM, and Cosco Shipping.
"Now is not the time for ocean carriers to refuse to negotiate a fair wage for these essential workers while raking in record profits," Biden said in a public statement, "My Administration will be monitoring for any price gouging activity that benefits foreign ocean carriers, including those on the USMX board."
Even behind closed doors, Riley says that Biden has applied heavy pressure on the foreign owned carriers at the bargaining table.
"I tell you what I have been in those back rooms. And you know what? [Biden] is not hammering labor," said Riley. "He's not hammering American workers. He is hammering, hammering these foreign flag carriers."
More than 85,000 workers are on strike nationwide. Another 40,000 Stellantis workers are voting on strike and could join them soon.
The strike wave ahead of the election gives the Biden-Harris a chance to show that they are on the side of unions.
Meanwhile, Trump has largely been absent from the labor strikes. Instead of walking picket lines to show his support for workers, Trump has attempted to blame the Biden-Harris team for the uptick in labor strikes.
"The strike was caused by the massive inflation that was created by the Harris-Biden regime," Trump told Fox News Digital on Tuesday morning, mentioning nothing about the threat posed to dockworkers by automation.
Union leaders like Riley think Trump is making a mistake by failing to take on foreign-owned employers.
"We are taking a stand. We're standing in the gap for all American workers. We will not allow foreign companies to come into this country, exploit workers here, like they exploit some of these other third world countries," says Riley.
With the Biden-Harris Administration supportive of the striking workers and refusing to invoke Taft-Hartley to stop the strike, Riley feels the union has a historic moment to achieve a victory for workers.
"There are some that's still in the industry that can tell you about the 1977 strike", said Riley, who participated more than 40 years ago. "I tell younger workers that you will be able to tell this next generation you were there. That's what we teach this new generation of workers - to stand strong."
