The International Longshoremen’s Association Strike & Removing Public and Political Pressures From the Bargaining Table

By Jilly Horowitz

The International Longshoremen’s Association (“ILA”) is the labor union that represents dockworkers in ports along the East Coast and Gulf of Mexico.[1]  The management counterpart to the ILA is the United States Maritime Alliance (“USMX”) which represents the various employers associated with the East and Gulf Coast ports.[2]  The most recent ILA-USMX master contract, or collective bargaining agreement, ran from October 1, 2018 to September 30, 2024 (the “2018 Agreement”).  As ILA workers prepared for a new contract, their two main concerns were securing pay increases and continuing assurances that human jobs would not be replaced by automation. 

Members of the ILA and USMX began over the terms of the new contract in the spring, but negotiations stopped when the ILA determined that “an Alabama port operator’s use of new gate technology that scans and processes containers without worker involvement violated their existing contract.”[3]  The parties did not return to the bargaining table, and ILA members went on strike on Tuesday, October 1, 2024, after the 2018 Agreement expired.  The strike ended by Thursday, October 3, 2024, when the parties reached “a tentative agreement on wages” and “agreed to extend the Master Contract until January 15, 2025, to return to the bargaining table to negotiate all other outstanding issues.”[4]

Over the last six years, during the course of the 2018 Agreement, the shipping industry experienced a series of losses followed by historic profits.  In the three years before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the shipping container industry suffered $8 billion in losses.[5]  However, beginning in 2020, the industry saw consecutive years of record-breaking profits due to skyrocketing consumer demand for goods while capacity on cargo ships remained limited.[6]  These profits reached $16 billion in 2020, $150 billion in 2021, and $215 billion in 2022.[7] Because these fluctuations happened within the span of the same ILA-USMX contract, they did not impact workers’ wages. 

Long-duration contracts have the advantage of predictability and security for all parties involved.  Workers have the peace of mind that market-factors beyond their control will not negatively affect their wages, and management can plan ahead with fixed labor costs.  When a contract is too long, or starts before a meaningful upturn, workers do not realize the benefits that are felt throughout the industry.  Experienced ILA workers were making $39 an hour by the end of the 2018 Agreement,[8] while the average worker in the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (“ILWU”), the ILA’s West Coast counterpart, makes nearly $55 an hour.[9]  The ILWU achieved that wage increase in their newest six-year contract, which was signed on August 31, 2023, after negotiations stalled for more than a year.[10]

The timing of a negotiation matters with respect to the parties’ tolerance for disagreement and the potential for external factors to influence the outcome.  In June, both the ILA and USMX could tolerate a break from negotiations because the contract would still be active for a four months and each side felt empowered to advocate for the best terms for themselves in a new contract.  A union’s most forceful tool is the ability to strike,[11] but that option would not be available until the contract expired, on October 1.  Pressure for all parties was building by mid-September, when the ILA and USMX wanted a contract that reflected their preferred terms and a potential strike was in sight.

Workers tend to receive the majority of public support in labor disputes,[12] but that changes when the public feels the strike affects their daily lives.[13]  If the ILA strike stretched into November, Americans would have felt the impact of “higher prices and goods shortages ahead of the presidential election and holiday season.”[14]  This could have resulted in public opinion turning against the ILA, which would have weakened their bargaining position.[15]  Because the strike was at this particularly sensitive moment, the ILA and USMX likely felt it was in both of their best interests to reach a temporary resolution that did not risk losing public support, gaining too much attention from the presidential campaigns, or forcing presidential intervention.[16] 

The President has the power, through a provision of the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, to intervene and temporarily suspend a strike for 80 days.[17]  While some Republicans and business groups leaned on the President to invoke these emergency powers, President Biden did not seem to have interest in taking such an extreme, anti-labor, measure.[18]

By extending the window for bargaining the terms of a new contract through January 15, 2025, the parties can continue to negotiate on their own terms, reaching a long-term agreement that appropriately weighs the concerns of labor and management, without undue influence from non-parties.

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[1] Map, ILA Union, https://ilaunion.org/map/ [perma.cc/Y5W6-T5SP] (last visited Oct. 17, 2024).

[2] About, United States Maritime Alliance, https://www.usmx.com/about [perma.cc/2RCR-YJTN] (last visited Oct. 17, 2024).

[3] Jo Constanz & Alicia Tang, US Dockworkers Strike to Stop Automation Seen at Other Ports, Bloomberg News (Oct. 1, 2024, 4:57 PM), https://www.bloomberglaw.com/product/blaw/bloomberglawnews/bloomberg-law-news/
X4V26B88000000 [perma.cc/8QT3-4QKX]. The ILA found this to be in violation of the 2018 Agreement’s prohibition on the use of “fully automated equipment” and prohibition on the “implementation of semi-automated equipment . . . until both parties agree to workforce protections and staffing levels.” Master Contract Between USMX and ILA 28 (2018) https://ilaunion.org/wp-content/uploads/MasterContract0-2021-12.pdf [perma.cc/K2HQ-4NAD].

[4] Joint Statement Regarding Master Contract, USMX and ILA (Oct. 3, 2024), https://ilaunion.org/joint-statement-regarding-master-contract/ [perma.cc/GP9A-PZRF].

[5] Max Zahn, Meredith Deliso, & Soo Youn, Dockworkers Strike Suspended, Tentative Agreement Includes 62% Pay Raise Over 6 Years, ABCNews (Oct. 3, 2024, 2:00 PM), https://abcnews.go.com/Business/port-strike-draws-frustration-pandemic-era-profit-boom/story?id=114421269 [perma.cc/ANP6-7HJP].

[6] Id.

[7] Id.

[8] Chris Isidore & Vanessa Yurkevich, Massive Port Strike Begins Across America’s East Coast, Threatening Shortages and Rising Prices, CNN (Oct. 1, 2024, 4:25 PM), https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/01/business/us-port-workers-strike-tuesday/index.html [perma.cc/CN65-4CFE].

[9] Peter Eavis, A Looming East Coast Port Strike Could Shake the Economy, N.Y. Times (Sept. 24, 2024), https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/24/business/economy/port-strike-economy.html [perma.cc/QP8Y-QHPE].

[10] Alejandra Carranza, ILWU Ratifies 6-Year Contract, Supply Chain Dive (Sept. 1, 2023), https://www.supplychaindive.com/news/ilwu-vote-ratify-6-year-contract-pma-west-coast-ports-strike-fears/692544/ [perma.cc/692J-9ED7]. The contract was backdated to July 1, 2022, and will expire on July 1, 2028.

[11] The Right to Strike, NLRB, https://www.nlrb.gov/strikes [perma.cc/M682-PFVP] (last visited Oct. 19, 2024).

[12] Lydia Saad, More in U.S. See Unions Strengthening and Want It That Way, Gallup News (Aug. 30, 2023), https://news.gallup.com/poll/510281/unions-strengthening.aspx [perma.cc/M9JX-7U85]; Bryan Mena, Americans Support Strikes—Until They Affect Their Daily Lives, CNN (Oct. 1, 2023, 7:00 AM), https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/01/economy/stocks-week-ahead-strikes-sentiment/index.html [perma.cc/TD8Q-MW3C].

[13] Mena, supra note 12.

[14] Ellen Ioanes, The Massive Dock Workers’ Strike, Explained, Vox (Oct. 4, 2024, 10:40 AM), https://www.vox.com/labor-jobs/375238/dock-workers-ila-usmx-shipping-supply-chain-economy-strike [perma.cc/8NLD-BGZA].

[15] Saad, supra note 12.

[16] Registered voters have ranked the economy as the most important issue influencing their choice for president, with 90% of voters calling it “extremely important” or “very important.” Megan Brenan, Economy Most Important Issue to 2024 Presidential Vote, Gallup News (Oct. 9, 2024), https://news.gallup.com/poll/651719/economy-important-issue-2024-presidential-vote.aspx [perma.cc/2NUD-5JNC]. With predictions that a strike might cost the economy $5 billion a day, the Harris and Trump campaigns were probably feeling pressure to balance their interest in being viewed as labor-friendly candidates and taking a strong stance to avoid new stressors on the economy. Constanz and Tang supra note 3; Ry Rivard, Nick Niedzwiadek, and Lauren Egan, Port Strike Deal Ends No-Win Dilemma for Democrats, Politico (last updated Oct. 4, 2024, 9:45 AM), https://www.politico.com/news/2024/10/03/port-strike-ends-defusing-a-political-time-bomb-00182455 [perma.cc/X3NQ-FUM7].

[17] 29 U.S.C. § 176; Paul Wiseman, The President Could Invoke a 1947 Law to Try to Suspend the Dockworkers’ Strike. Here’s How, The Associated Press (Oct. 2, 2024, 2:39 PM), https://apnews.com/article/port-strike-longshoremen-dockworkers-union-law-27c7eaa7b199fba1903a637eb6c7db0c [perma.cc/R2Y2-A35M].

[18] Rivard et al., supra note 16.