Some 45,000 dockworkers, members of the International Longshoremen’s Association who work at ports from Maine to Texas, are preparing to hit the streets Oct. 1 if a new contract isn’t in place.
It’s one of three sizable labor battles shaping up this fall. The contract for more than 30,000 workers at Boeing in Seattle, members of the International Association of Machinists, is up Sept. 12. Thousands poured into the Seattle Mariners’ baseball stadium July 17 and voted by 99.9% to strike if they don’t win an acceptable contract by then.
And the contract is up Sept. 20 for 200,000 postal workers, members of the American Postal Workers Union.
No negotiations have been held between the International Longshoremen’s Association and the United States Maritime Alliance, the bosses’ association in the East and Gulf Coast longshore industry, since June 10. That was when the ILA said it discovered the bosses were running automated equipment to process trucks at Alabama’s Port of Mobile, in violation of the current contract. Automation and the loss of jobs is a key issue for longshoremen across the country. Another major issue for ILA members is a healthy wage increase.
Harold Daggett, president of the union, has emphasized that it would not “entertain any discussion about extending the current contract,” or put up with interference from either the Biden administration or the Department of Labor. Longshoremen face the same kinds of anti-labor red tape that the government imposes on rail workers, flight attendants and many other workers.
Negotiations are ongoing for a new contract at Boeing, the first in 16 years. Since the last contract the union agreed to concessions under threats from the bosses to move production out of state.
“We aren’t just fighting for ourselves,” Jon Holden, president of International Association of Machinists District 751, said in a union statement. “We are fighting for everyone, from our family members to the flying public.” Along with better wages, these workers are fighting for improved quality and safety measures, winning back retirement benefits and the end to mandatory overtime.
Workers march through the big Boeing plant in Everett every Wednesday to gather support and draw attention to the union’s demands.
Like the other two unions, the postal workers are fighting for significant wage increases after years of soaring prices have lowered the value of their paychecks. Other issues include stronger safety rights, an end to a divisive two-tier wage system, better work hour guarantees and rights for part-time workers. These are issues that affect millions of working people.
“We are negotiating against a backdrop of both high inflation, with its profound negative impact on workers and our families, along with rising worker militancy throughout the country,” Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union, said at the opening of negotiations.
Other national labor negotiations going on today involve 8,000 workers at the airline caterer Gate Gourmet, and thousands of flight attendants who’ve gone years without a new contract.
The Militant urges its readers to follow these negotiations and help build support for these workers.