New York (CNN) — A week ago, few outside the labor movement or the shipping industry knew Harold Daggett, the colorful, tough union boss now on strike at ports on the East and Gulf coasts.
Of course, that is no longer the case.
Daggett is the president of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA), which has nearly 50,000 union members on strike at three dozen different port facilities. The strike has paralyzed the movement of most containerized cargo entering and leaving the United States since Tuesday morning.
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It is the union’s first strike in 47 years, but Daggett participated in the previous one as a rank-and-file dockworker. He had joined the union a decade earlier, in 1967, after serving in the Navy in Vietnam.
Today, Daggett is 78 years old, has six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Wearing gold chains and a diamond ring, he swears virtually every other sentence as he threatens to cripple the global economy.
“Who are the greedy ones here? These companies in Europe don’t give a damn about us,” he told strike members after the strike began early Tuesday, referring to the opposing foreign shipping companies.
“Let’s show them that we have to give a f***, because nothing is going to move without us!” he said to cheers. “We’re going to win this f–king thing. Believe me. You won’t be able to survive long. We’re going to get what we deserve.”
A few hours later, he arrived back at the Port of New York and New Jersey in Elizabeth, New Jersey, just after dawn, flanked by his son, ILA Executive Vice President Dennis Daggett, as well as other ILA leaders.
A sea of hundreds of union members parted with cheers as he made his way to the top of a small grassy knoll, with standing shipping containers as a backdrop. He addressed the members using a megaphone and very colorful language.
“If we have to be out here for a month or two months, this world is going to fall apart,” Daggett said.
Unwanted attention
But the growing attention on Daggett and the strike has brought harassment and death threats, according to a union statement.
Daggett earns about $902,000 for his positions at the ILA and one of its locations, much more than many of his counterparts. His son earns US$703,000 for the ILA and the same premises. In the United Auto Workers union, with more than four times its membership, UAW President Shawn Fain received just under $200,000 for his eight months on the job last year.
Daggett also has other honors not enjoyed by most union bosses. For example, the union and several local unions erected a statue of him outside their headquarters in 2022.
The ILA attributes the criticism against him to attempts to get the union to give in to its demands, adding that Daggett “is sickened by these attempts to attack his professional achievements as a union leader and destroy the life he has built for himself and his family.” .
However, there have been allegations of crimes, including federal racketeering charges against him and other union officials in 2005, accusing Daggett and mob associates of enriching themselves by embezzling union funds. But some of those charges were later dismissed. Daggett was acquitted of the other charges. He has denied any accusations of mafia ties.
Political relations
Daggett has ties to his fellow Queens native, former President Donald Trump, with whom he has said he has “a long relationship dating back to decades in New York City,” according to a July post asking ILA members to pray for the former president after an assassination attempt.
In that message, Daggett also included a photo of himself shaking Trump’s hand. That photo was from a meeting at Mar-a-Lago last November, in what Daggett described as a “wonderful, productive 90-minute meeting.” He said they discussed concerns that increased automation at ports could cost the union jobs, a key demand of the current strike.
The union has not endorsed Trump. Nor has it followed the lead of many other unions in endorsing Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris or, early in the campaign, President Joe Biden. However, the ILA did endorse Biden against Trump four years ago, and Daggett then highlighted Biden’s “friendship and support for the ILA (which) goes back decades.”
On Tuesday morning, Daggett also praised acting Labor Secretary Julie Su’s efforts for trying to reach an agreement before the strike, even though the union had said it did not want federal mediators involved in the talks. talks. Additionally, the union’s Political Action Committee has donated $115,000 to Democrats this election cycle, compared to $5,000 to Republicans, according to data from OpenSecrets, which tracks donations.
Why did the strike break out now?
The timing of the strike is determined by the previous six-year contract, which expired on Monday night, and not by the US presidential election.
The union saw the shipbuilding sector’s recent period of record profitability as its opportunity to achieve spectacular wage increases.
The sector’s profits surpassed $400 billion between 2020 and 2023 as shipping rates soared during and after the pandemic, according to analyst John McCown. It is believed to be more than the sector earned in the entire history of container shipping prior to that date.
Members of the International Longshoremen’s Association representing some 45,000 workers, on strike outside the port of New York and New Jersey on the first day of the strike. Credit: Shannon Stapleton/Reuters
The union could have delayed the strike until after the election, working under an extension, but the ILA would have lost bargaining power by delaying any industrial action closer to the end of the shipping season leading up to the holiday festivities. of year. Going on strike now made sense for the union, regardless of the political impact.
The union seeks a wage increase of US$5 per hour in each of the six years of the contract being negotiated, which would raise the maximum hourly wage by 77% over the life of the contract.
When the company came back on the eve of the strike with an offer of $3 an hour, which would have increased wages by almost 50%, Daggett said he responded, “Fuck you.”
The-CNN-Wire
