Harold Daggett’s sprawling NJ mansion features a Bentley, a five-car garage and a guesthouse

Harold Daggett – the union boss who has vowed to “cripple” the US economy if the ports don’t ban automation and sharply increase dockworkers’ wages – had a Bentley convertible parked outside his sprawling New Jersey mansion this week, exclusive photos obtained by The After disclosure.

Photos taken by drone on Tuesday show the British luxury car parked with the hatch open outside what appears to be a five-car garage connected by a covered skybridge to his 7,136-square-foot Tudor-style home.

The colossal two-story mansion – located on a 25-acre estate in Sparta, a leafy enclave 50 miles west of New York City – surrounds a spacious backyard patio with an amoeba-shaped pool. Next to a huge stone pizza oven there is a covered outdoor bar.

A gate on the other side of the patio gives access to what appears to be a free-standing sauna, surrounded by a spacious wooden terrace. An extensive stretch of forest surrounds the property on all sides.

The chic complex is located in a picturesque part of the Garden State, near the Delaware Water Gap, where five-bedroom homes cost as much as $6 million, according to Zillow.

A real estate agent who spoke to The Post said Daggett put the four-bedroom, six-and-a-half-bathroom property on the market in 2004 at a price of $3.1 million before lowering it to $2.9 million. He eventually took it off the market.

Daggett, who fought federal charges of mob ties, became president of the International Longshoremen’s Association in 2011, a job that comes with a salary of $728,000 a year, on top of an additional $173,000 from ILA-Local 1804-1.

In 2005, he was accused at a trial in Brooklyn of steering union benefits contracts to companies that paid kickbacks to organized crime, The Wall Street Journal reported.

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

He described himself as a mob target — even though a mob defector had testified that Daggett was a member of the Genovese crime family, The New York Times reported.

During the course of the trial, one of Daggett’s co-defendants – Lawrence Ricci, an alleged Genovese associate – 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.

Daggett, along with the other co-defendants, was acquitted.

The 78-year-old boss – who is often seen in public wearing a polo shirt and a chunky gold medallion around his neck as he casts himself as a staunch advocate for workers – also previously owned a 75-foot yacht, reports said.

“They will be like this,” Daggett said, grabbing his neck in a choking gesture during an interview last month as it became clear that the union and the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX), the group that negotiates the ports, would do. unable to agree on a new contract.

‘I will paralyze you. I will paralyze you and you have no idea what that means. Nobody does that,” he said.

The foul-mouthed union boss has apparently dug in his heels for a long strike.

“I don’t have a crystal ball between my legs, but it’s going to take a long time, I can tell you that,” he told The Wall Street Journal.

More than 45,000 dock workers went on strike Tuesday, closing 36 ports from Maine to Texas for the first time in nearly half a century.

The dock workers’ strike, the first since 1977, could collapse supply chains and cause shortages and higher prices if it lasts more than a few weeks. It also costs the US economy more than $3 billion per day.

From midnight on Tuesday, workers walked along picket lines carrying signs calling for more money and a ban on automation, which could cost workers their jobs.

Experts say consumers are unlikely to notice shortages in the coming weeks if the strike lasts that long, although some perishables such as bananas could disappear from supermarkets – although at this time of year most other fruit and vegetables are sold domestically . according to Alan Siger, president of the Produce Distributors Association, grown and not processed at the ports.

In anticipation of a strike, most major retailers also stocked up on goods and moved forward with shipping gift items for the holidays.

The USMX said both sides have abandoned their initial positions.

The alliance offered a 50% wage increase over the six-year term of the contract.

Comments from the union’s leadership briefly suggested an increase to 61.5%, but the union has since indicated it will stick to its initial demand for a 77% pay increase over six years.

“We have demonstrated our commitment to doing our part to end the entirely avoidable ILA strike,” the alliance said on Tuesday.

The ports’ wage offer is higher than any other recent union settlement, the group said.

“We look forward to hearing from the Union on how we can get back to the table and actually negotiate, which is the only way to reach a solution,” the statement said.

On Tuesday, the Biden administration put pressure on port employers to increase their offer to strike a deal with port workers.

Government officials led by acting Labor Minister Julie Su have urged both sides to return to the negotiating table.

With Postal Wires