(NewsNation) — Some 45,000 dockworkers from Maine to Texas are back at work after going on strike this week over wages and the use of automation, leaving the major ports at a near standstill for three days.
A 78-year-old Navy veteran from Queens led the International Longshoremen’s Association union members in the organization’s first strike in almost 50 years from Tuesday to Thursday this week. Harold Daggett, president of the ILA since 2011, has fought for dockworker protections for half a century.
Most recently, he’s been the subject of news headlines for vowing to “cripple” the U.S. economy if a contract with the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) isn’t reached.
The ILA and the USMX announced Thursday the strike was called off after agreeing to extend the previous contract through Jan. 15 to give both parties time to negotiate. Operations at the ports resumed.
Who is Harold Daggett?
Daggett is a third-generation ILA member. His father, Harold Daggett Sr., worked in the industry for 57 years, according to Daggett Jr.’s biography page on the ILA website.
Before following in his father’s footsteps, Daggett served in Vietnam and was medically discharged from the Navy. Then, he joined a local ILA chapter in 1967 as a mechanic and worked his way up to foreman.
As the union’s chief negotiator for the past decade, Daggett protected workers against “the ravishes of automation,” which the ILA pledges to shield the industry and its workers from. He also leads the talks with the USMX, which negotiates for the ports, to agree on six-year master contracts.
The most recent contract, which details employee wages, expired Monday, leading to the strike.
What are Harold Daggett, dockworkers asking for?
The ILA signed a six-year contract with the United States Maritime Alliance in 2018 outlining wages for employees working on ships and in port terminals. The contract, which ended Sept. 30 this year, increased pay by $1 an hour.
Under the contract that expired Monday, top-scale port workers with at least six years of service earned a base pay of $39 an hour, or just over $81,000 a year. The starting pay for dockworkers was $20 an hour, which rose to $24.75 after two years and $31.90 after four years.
However, many longshoremen make much more with overtime and other benefits. Daggett, as head of the longshoremen’s union, made over $900,000 last year, according to union filings with the Department of Labor. A total of $728,000 came from the ILA and an additional $173,000 from the local chapter 1804-1 for being the president emeritus.
The union is demanding a 77% raise over six years — a $5 increase per hour for each year of the contract. Someone in a top position could make $69 an hour by 2030 if the union’s demands are met.
The ILA rejected an offer of a 50% wage increase. The USMX called the strike “completely avoidable,” while the ILA says USMX’s statements mislead the public.
“Our members feel underappreciated, especially given the sacrifices they made during the pandemic, keeping ports open and the economy moving. The wage increases in the previous contract were rendered meaningless by rising inflation,” a previous ILA statement said. “USMX also overlooks the fact that two-thirds of our members are constantly on call, with no guaranteed employment if no ships are being worked.”
Daggett and other top leaders have received death threats, the ILA announced in an online statement Wednesday, citing a New York Post article that published his address and photos of his New Jersey home. The article also mentions old allegations of mob ties and a 2005 racketeering trial in which Daggett was acquitted.
“They printed other details of his personal life, full of false accusations against him, with the sole intent on destroying his character and disparaging his 68-year ILA career, with the intention of weakening his ability to negotiate a new Master Contract for ILA members,” the statement said.
Harold Daggett’s ties to Donald Trump
The strike came at a coincidentally strategic time, one month before the Nov. 5 election.
Daggett has been militant in his approach to the strike. He warned that if the Biden administration forced workers back to the docks, his workers would intentionally slow their speed.
“In today’s world, I’ll cripple you,” Daggett said in a video posted to the ILA’s YouTube page Sept. 5. He has been critical of President Joe Biden before.
The strike’s first day happened the same day as the first and only vice presidential debate between JD Vance and Tim Walz, the running mates of presidential candidates former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, respectively.
Daggett has decadeslong ties to Trump, according to an online statement the ILA published in July. The statement asked its members to pray for the former president after the Butler, Pennsylvania, assassination attempt in July.
The two had a meeting in November last year at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
“We had a wonderful, productive 90-minute meeting where I expressed to President Trump the threat of automation to American workers,” the statement said. “President Trump promised to support the ILA in its opposition to automated terminals in the U.S. Mr. Trump also listened to my concerns about Federal ‘Right To Work’ laws which undermines unions and their ability to represent and fight for its membership.”