East and Gulf Coast port workers are gearing up for their first strike in nearly 50 years, as the International Longshoremen’s Association and the United States Maritime Alliance have been unable to reach an agreement on the terms of their contract.
Seth Harris, senior fellow at the Burnes Center for Social Change and former deputy director of President Biden’s National Economic Council, joins Market Domination to discuss what an agreement could look like.
“I think that making everybody happy is going to be impossible here,” Harris tells Yahoo Finance. “The dock workers are pushing very aggressively for substantial wage increases. They feel they are owed a much bigger share of the massive profits that the shipping companies and ports and terminals, which are co-owned in essence, have been making over the last several years,” he explains.
Harris notes that shipping companies made enormous profits during the pandemic when consumers’ buying habits shifted more toward goods from services. In addition to the wage demands, the union is seeking better benefits and protection from automation.
However, companies have been “quite resistant” to meet these demands. Harris notes, “The contract language now is quite worker-protective. So I think they feel there’s not a lot more that they should do.”
When an agreement is finally reached, it will likely fall somewhere between the current offer from shipping companies and the demands of the union. “My guess is it will lean towards the workers. They won’t get everything they want, but I think they’ll get a larger share of their demands,” Harris concludes.
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This post was written by Melanie Riehl
