The terms are a total victory for dockworkers and for smooth supply chain operation, as the White House faced down exorbitant shipper profits. What would Trump have done?
“The USMX’s anti-worker tactics fool no one, and the ILA is serving dockers and workers everywhere by drawing a line in the sand and refusing to accept anything less than they deserve."
Tens of thousands of longshoremen at 14 ports along the East Coast and Gulf of Mexico are poised to strike early Tuesday morning if their union and employers cannot reach an agreement by midnight, which could disrupt the economy and the election.
Riley said government-operated ports, including Charleston's, are reducing union jobs by hiring non-ILA workers to operate cranes, receive and deliver cargo and perform other duties.
According to some reports, longshore workers are fed up with the NY Waterfront Commision's refusal to hire full-time workers, excessive drug testing and outsourcing of work.
Labor experts say unions are focusing on the hospitality field and less traditionally unionized workplaces - car washes, retailers, taxi and limo companies - as membership rolls have decreased. The percentage of private sector workers represented by unions has fallen from a peak of about 35 percent in the mid 1950s to about 7 percent, said Fred Feinstein, a former general counsel with the National Labor Relations Board who now works as a union.
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