The longshoremen’s strike reveals deep problems with American organized labor

The past four years have proven to be something of a golden age for organized labor. Workers have won tough organizing campaigns against Volkswagen and Amazon, bold new contracts have delivered better wages in dozens of industries, and a union-friendly government has cracked down on wage theft and restrictive labor contracts.

Since 2020, the long-term decline in U.S. union membership has stalled, while polls show unions are viewed more favorably than ever in decades.

But the winning streak could face a major test if the International Longshoremen’s Association decides to close many of the country’s major ports.

The ILA strike, which began Monday evening and shut down port operations along the East Coast from Houston to Boston, threatens more than just economy-crippling inflation and disruption. With just a month before the election, the ill-timed strike could also reveal the hubris and corruption that continues to roil some corners of organized labor — factors that could turn moderates away from unions and against the needs of workers .

The ILA is calling for curbs on the implementation of automated cranes and other technological improvements that are now ubiquitous in ports around the world. The ILA leadership has also rejected an offer from the employer for a 50 percent pay increase over six years. The ILA initially demanded 77 percent. Dock workers in the ILU already earn more than $100,000.

Harold Daggett, the president of the ILA, is the face of the strike. In a widely circulated video, Daggett explains threatens“In today’s world, I will cripple you and you have no idea what that means.”

The threatening words, combined with apparently unreasonable strike demands, have prompted investigations into Daggett’s record.

Daggett received a combined salary of more than $1,049,416 in 2023, which he derived from a local New Jersey chapter of the ILU and its national office. Harold’s two sons, Dennis Daggett and John Daggett, serve in leadership roles at the ILU, bringing in $685,877 and $642,631 in income that year.

The annual household income of $2.3 million, from just 8 p.m a week full of union responsibilities, belies the demands of striking dock workers this week, who carried banners with the title: “Profit over people is unacceptable: support ILA workers.”

The Telegraph reported on Daggett’s luxurious lifestyle and alleged ties to the mafia:

He previously owned a 75-foot yacht, the Obsession, and was spotted by his members driving a Bentley, according to The New York Times. The Justice Department, which has reportedly lost two cases against Mr Daggett, has accused him of being an “associate” of the Genovese crime family – one of the infamous “Five Families” of the American Mafia. Mr. Daggett, who was charged with racketeering in 2005, took the witness stand and portrayed himself as a mob target despite evidence against him from a mob defector who said he was under mob control, the New reported York Times.

During that trial, one of Mr. Daggett’s co-defendants, a well-known gangster named Lawrence Ricci, disappeared. His decomposing body was found several weeks later in the trunk of a car outside a New Jersey restaurant, with the murder still unsolved. Despite his union being a historical symbol of organized crime’s grip on union members, as depicted in the 1954 film “On the Waterfront,” Mr. Daggett was acquitted in both cases.

The details of the DOJ case against Daggett are staggering. American lawyers so-called that Genovese gang figures, including George Barone, who had killed at least ten people in mob-ordered hits, set up ILA elections to keep Daggett in power while exercising control over the union for a variety of kickback schemes. In 2012, long after Daggett was acquitted, a New York Harbor Waterfront Commission called for report found that the ILA was extensively engaging in the practice of “no-show jobs,” paying as much as $400,000 for little to no work.

The report found that the union still employed many relatives of known mafia figures, including a nephew and two sons-in-law of the late Genovese mafia leader Vincent Gigante, each taking home $400,000 a year as longshoremen’s union officials without any restrictions. clearly defined tasks. Daggett testified in response to questions about the roles that $400,000 was “not a lot of money these days.”

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union, which represents longshoremen on the West Coast, Hawaii and British Columbia, avoided a strike and signed a new contract last year that secured a 30 percent wage increase and special bonuses. The ILWU contract does not call for an end to automation. Instead, the contract secures union jobs for workers to repair automated cranes and oversee other robotic equipment.

By contrast, Willie Adams, the president of the ILWU, was paid $341,273 in 2023, almost a third of what Harold Daggett of the ILU was compensated that year. The ILWU is known for being more democratic and transparent with its finances than its East Coast counterparts.

Many of the more successful unions of recent years have shed old leadership and wage structures. After decades of scandals at the United Auto Workers, involving millions of dollars in embezzlement and lavish spending by union leaders, a new guard came to power. Under the new leadership of Shawn Fain, who goes a step further modest salary of $228,872, the UAW has revived its efforts and won a series of contracts for workers.

Moreover, the controversial strikes and petty corruption are a stark reminder of the failures of the American model of organized labor. The so-called “enterprise union” approach, which is highly adversarial and organizes unions solely on the basis of incentives, has performed poorly compared to other systems.

In Europe, countries such as Sweden and Germany operate under codetermination and sectoral bargaining rules. Under co-determination, larger companies are required to allow employees to elect their own representatives to the board of directors, so that decisions are made jointly by management.

Take the German port operator and shipping company Hapag-Lloyd. The company has four employee representatives on the board and has enjoyed relative harmony between human resources management and decent wages. Employee representatives tend to be less hostile when they are integrated into the company’s leadership and have a stake in every decision. Hapag-Lloyd leads the way with the latest innovations, including automated ports and smart sea containers.

Unions in the US generally do not insist on participation. They prefer a system that keeps unions as independent organizations that can operate in an adversarial relationship with a host company. Under this system, union leaders can completely separate themselves from a company or a sector. But that means union decisions based solely on membership dues can undermine a company’s future viability. Consider the decade-long struggle by newspaper unions to force major news organizations to continue delivering paper in physical form to protect the jobs of paying delivery workers. That saved some jobs for a short period, but ultimately put many news media out of business.

There is also a long history of union hubris in America. The friendly, pro-union stance of the Biden administration – President Biden has already done that declared that he will not invoke the Taft-Hatley Act that allows him to end the ILA strike by force – may have pushed unions like the ILA to take an absolutist bargaining position, betting that with such a welcoming political dynamic any high-stakes bet will be rejected. rewarded.

That mentality hasn’t always worked for American workers. In many cases, unions have overplayed their hand, resulting in less political power for organized labor and fewer benefits and wages for rank-and-file workers.

In 1978, then-Sen. Ted Kennedy worked with his allies to destroy President Jimmy Carter’s universal health care plan, believing this would provide a political opening to pass a more comprehensive plan under a future Kennedy administration. That gamble backfired when Kennedy lost his bid to replace Carter and Ronald Reagan was swept into the White House.