Who is Harold Daggett, the boss of the port union with alleged ties to the mafia?

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Fiery union boss Harold Daggett has long cast himself as a staunch advocate for workers, even as he lived in luxury, owned a yacht and drove a Bentley – and fought alleged ties to the mafia.

Wearing a polo shirt with a thick gold medallion around his neck, the 78-year-old Daggett, who as president of the International Longshoremen’s Association is leading the port strikes stretching from Maine to Texas, was prone to theatrical flourishes in a September interview as he prepared prepare for the strike.

“They’ll be soon,” Daggett said, grabbing his neck in a choking gesture. ‘I will paralyze you. I will paralyze you and you have no idea what that means. Nobody does that.”

Harold Daggett warned that the dock strikes will “cripple” the U.S. economy if the dock workers’ demands are not met. AFP via Getty Images

Since last year, Daggett has threatened to close the 36 ports covered by his union if “cash-crazed” shipping companies refuse to raise wages and offer workers protections from industrial automation.

“Who is going to support the families (of the workers)? Machines? Machines don’t have families,” he said earlier.

Meanwhile, Daggett — who worked at the ILA for 57 years and took over as president in 2011 — collected $728,000 in compensation from the ILA last year.

He collected another $173,000 as president emeritus of a local union chapter, according to Labor Department records.

He lives in a 7,136-square-foot home valued at $1.7 million on a 10-acre lot in Sparta, New Jersey, according to Zillow and NJ Property Records.

By comparison, his fellow union bosses at the AFL-CIO, Teamsters and autoworkers unions earn less than $300,000 a year, according to a Politico report.

Daggett previously owned the Obsession – a 75-foot yacht – and his family reportedly drove him around in a Bentley, according to The New York Times.

“Dude had more yachts than me!” Billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk wrote this in a post on X on Tuesday.

In 2005, the Justice Department accused Daggett of being an “associate” with the Genovese crime family – one of the “Five Families” of the American Mafia.

The dockworkers are seeking wage increases and protection against industrial automation in the new contract. AP

Daggett took the witness stand that year after federal prosecutors charged him with racketeering.

He described himself as a mob target — even though a mob defector had testified that Daggett was under the mob’s thumb, The New York Times reported.

During the course of the trial, one of Daggett’s co-defendants – Lawrence Ricci, an alleged Big Mafia figure – disappeared. His body was found weeks later decomposed in the trunk of a car outside a New Jersey restaurant.

Ricci’s death remained unsolved, although speculation swirled that he was murdered after refusing to plead guilty to avoid news reports about the trial.

In 2005, Daggett was accused of being an “associate” of the mafia. AP

Daggett was acquitted in two cases – even though the famous black-and-white mafia film “On the Waterfront” was inspired by his dockworkers’ union.

Over the years, Daggett has blasted the Waterfront Commission — a regulatory agency inspired by the film and created to prevent corruption at the ports of New York and New Jersey.

Daggett called the commission’s accusations of ties to the mafia “total bulls–t” and a “dark, ugly attack on Italian Americans.”

“It is a damning tragedy for the Waterfront Commission to have a free hand and target Italian Americans as part of their historic anti-labor campaign,” Daggett said in 2022. “Let’s be real. The Waterfront Commission has argued for decades that good jobs only went to people with so-called ‘mob ties’.”

Now he’s using his signature aggression to fight suppliers, government agencies and even President Biden amid the strikes — which JP Morgan says will bring a supply chain to a standstill and could cost the economy billions every day.

Retailers, auto suppliers and agricultural importers had hoped Biden would impose the federal Taft-Hartley Act, which allows U.S. presidents to implement an 80-day cooling-off period that forces workers to return to work during certain labor disputes.

Daggett has criticized the Waterfront Commission, a regulatory agency that aims to prevent corruption. AFP via Getty Images

But that hope was dashed when Biden said Monday he doesn’t “believe” in Taft-Hartley.

Daggett had mocked the idea during an interview in early September.

“Do you think if I go back for ninety days, those men will work on that pier?” Daggett said.

He painted a picture of the consequences of the strikes over time – signaling his commitment to the long term.

President Joe Biden said he does not “believe” in the Taft-Hartley Act, which would force workers to return to work for 80 days. AFP via Getty Images

“Everything in the United States comes on a ship,” Daggett said during the September interview.

During the first week of the strikes, the media will pay attention to the picket lines, he predicted.

During the second week, car salespeople will struggle to hold on to their jobs as car shipments stagnate, Daggett said. The malls will start closing in the third week.

Subsequently, the jobs of construction workers will be at risk as steel and wood shipments lag behind.

“Everyone now hates the dock workers because they now realize how important our jobs are,” the union head warned.

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