The Truth About The Dock Worker Strike

An attack on labor.

In case you missed it, there was a dock worker strike in the US. It's been suspended until January 15th, with a tentative contract in place. The International Longshoremen's Association (ILA), the union covering the workers, shut down operations for a short period because of issues with contract negotiation. The US Maritime Alliance (USMX), which is a conglomeration of shipping companies, didn't want to pay the workers what they were asking for and also didn't want to agree to not automate jobs. The last time there was an ILA strike was in 1977.

I saw some media outlets doing a good job reporting on this, while others were using sensational clips to get people spun up into a frenzy. Some of the coverage seemed like it was focused on making Americans mad at the dock workers, which was the wrong place to put the anger. If you pay closer attention to the subtext at some of the media you consume, the intention behind it is to make people angry at each other and at the working class. More on that later.

There's two significant points that came up during the strike. One - the pay disparity between West Coast and East Coast workers. Dock workers in the Western US average about $55/hour. I wasn't able to find any specific numbers for them, though it's much higher than East Coast workers, who were being paid $20/hour for their first year and capped at $39/hour after 6 years. Two - workers are rightly concerned about their jobs being automated away. Between AI and robotics advancements, people who're paying attention to what's going on are concerned about how they'll be able to pay their bills in another 5 years.

Something that came up during all this was a clip from the union boss, Harold Daggett. Here's the clip that was spreading around social media:

Some insights from this - it wasn't a good look on the part of the union to do this right after Hurricane Helene. A lot of anger was because shutting down ports meant people in the affected areas were going to suffer even more. There's also the issue that it was going to raise prices on goods for people, and as Daggett said in the video, some people would have been laid off due to goods not being delivered and businesses getting halted.

People also called out Daggett, saying he is a friend of Donald Trump and this strike was politically motivated. There may have been some truth to that, but contract was ultimately up and there would have eventually been a strike. When time runs out and parties can't reach an agreement, strikes tend to happen. The timing on all this was poor. That's not the focus of this letter though - I mentioned that to give some extra context. The focus is how people have misdirected anger towards to dock workers, calling them greedy for asking for a 77% raise.

Let's break down this issue.

• The union was doing what it was supposed to do, which is look after its members. Because this event was so politicized by pundits, it made unions look even worse, when many could say we need them more now than we have since the Industrial Revolution. Unions tend to shoot for the moon with what they ask for and businesses try to give as little as possible. Usually they meet in the middle and a new contract gets signed, giving better pay and benefits to the members.
  
  I've been a union member, and between jobs with them and without them, having a union is definitely a plus for the worker. Part of the issue in this country right now is people don't have any protections or a union to back them, and we end up with labor violations and workplaces where people get treated like garbage.
  

• Here's a quote from a German Lutheran pastor, Martin Niemöller, "First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out — Because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out — Because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out — Because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak for me."
  
  People love to talk about platitudes, such as saying workers should be treated better, but when it comes down to it, most only care about getting something as cheap and fast as possible. As soon as the strike hit the news, Americans got furious at the dock workers and thought they were being entitled, lazy, and greedy for asking for a 77% raise.
  
  Many thought the workers were being paid too much already (81k/year at the top end). Rather than being mad at the workers and resenting them for how much extra they were asking for, the people angry about their own wages should be figuring out how to start a union if it matters that much to them. At the end of the day, the only person who will put food on the table and a roof over your head is yourself. The workers are looking after their own interests, as they should.
  

• The work itself is hard. It doesn't matter whether it's -20F or 100F, rainy, icy, middle of the night, or the holiday season. These workers bust their asses doing hard labor to move this cargo. Doing work like this also beats on a person's body. I've got a couple years of construction under my belt and I can say by the end of a work week, rest is needed and there's usually some random aches and pains. That's not to mention the random injuries, large and small, that happen in jobs like this. Also, as people do jobs like this for a long period of time, they pay a steep price with their bodies as they get older, especially in the form of knee and back pain.
  
  Having been on both ends of the spectrum - working in labor and working in office jobs, I can say with certainty that office work is much easier than being in the field. The people complaining about the pay increase don't truly understand the long-term physical toll jobs like this take and the hard work that goes into it.
  

• Things are going to get worse with automation over the next 5-10 years. I'm not trying to be a doomer, but if a business can replace employees with AI/robotics and can save costs, they will absolutely do it. I recommend anyone in a vulnerable job right now to start paying more attention to what's going on and to be skilling up constantly. I don't trust the government to do anything meaningful to help deal with the job loss problems once they start en masse.
  
  The workers were right to ask for no automation - they're looking out for their survival, as any other organism would when it's existence is being threatened. The people hating on them over the automation part of the contract would be screaming at the top of their lungs if they were about to lose their entire livelihood due to automation, yet they freely criticized the workers for this, with absolutely no self awareness.
  

• The argument about them being paid too much is ridiculous. First - saying they "only move boxes" is over simplifying how much work they do. Dock workers also help keep the economy going. Without them, the economy would almost grind to a halt, except for domestic production. Part of how a market works is by paying more for those with a larger role in the economy - someone at McDonald's would never have the bargaining power to ask for $69/hour (top rate the ILA asked for), but someone in the position like the dock workers can ask for it, because they are critical to the economy.
  
  Let's breakdown some numbers. One of the ports affected was in Philly, so I used PA for state taxes.
  
  Current pay tops out at $39/hour ($81,120/year)
  
  Gross pay $6,420/month - 746 Federal, 388 Social Security, 90 Medicare, 192 State = $4,820/month after taxes. This doesn't include any extra deductions such as retirement contributions, insurance coverage, union dues, etc, as I didn't have any numbers for those and they would vary between each member.
  
  A typical apartment in Philly runs around $2,200/month, not including utilities. Let's figure in the monthly usual expenses:
  
  150 - car insurance
  60 - cell phone
  80 - entertainment (streaming, subscriptions, etc)
  120 - fuel
  600 - groceries
  150 - incidentals
  80 - internet
  120 - utilities
  350 - vehicle payment
  
  After all that, there's only $910 left over at the end of the month. Keep in mind, $4,820 was being generous to begin with. This doesn't include any debt payments, pet expenses, education, etc. One emergency could wipe a person's finances out for the next several years while they try to pay it off. Also keep in mind, this is what the highest earners make. Trying to do this on $20/hour would not be feasible. This is why people are getting pissed off. Their labor and time is being used to make record profits for companies, yet they can't live on the peanuts they make.
  
  Here's the math at the proposed $69/hour for the top earners:
  
  Gross pay $11,040/month - 1,844 Federal, 684 Social Security, 160 Medicare, 346 State = $8,002 after taxes. That's a difference of $3,182/month. That's a huge difference and is much more tenable for people.
  

• At the end of the day, all the outrage against the workers was an attack against them. This is what many media, politicians, and the elite want to happen. Many in the media are used as tools by the politicians and the elite to spin people into a frenzy to hate one another. This allows them to make record profits behind the scenes, pull their shenanigans, and keep attention off of themselves. If people could see through this, maybe the US could start to mend some of the major problems it's dealing with.

As far as I'm concerned, give the workers the pay increase they asked for. They earn it and the companies can afford it. We've spent trillions of dollars over the past couple decades dropping bombs on other countries because they didn't share our beliefs, yet somehow it's okay to treat people here like pawns. That's not to mention all the other dumb shit the US as a collective has wasted money on, like the Wall Street bailouts. It's much of the reason why employers are having a hard time finding employees. They expect the world from people, yet they want to pay peanuts and think people will be okay with it.

Anyway, that's the end of my rant. Have a good weekend and I'll see you next Saturday! 🍻