Trump backs dockworkers as costly strike looms before inauguration

President-elect Trump has thrown his weight behind dockworkers’ demands for automation protections, as he braces for a strike that could significantly disrupt the economy just days before he is set to take office.

Negotiations between the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) broke down in mid-November, a little over a month after the union suspended a three-day strike at dozens of ports along the East and Gulf coasts.

The two sides have until Jan. 15 — just five days before Trump’s inauguration — to reach an agreement to avert another costly strike.

“Trump has a very strong interest in avoiding the disruption in supply chains that a strike would cause,” said Marick Masters, a business professor at Wayne State University. “That would throw his economic agenda off balance.”

Automation concerns are at the center of the latest breakdown in negotiations, as ILA seeks “airtight language that there will be no automation or semi-automation.”

The union’s dockworkers walked off the job in early October, as the union pushed for higher wages and automation protections. The strike, which was ILA’s first in nearly 50 years, was suspended just days later when USMX agreed to boost worker pay.

Automation became a key point of contention as negotiations got underway again in October. Talks came to a halt in mid-November after USMX introduced “their intent to implement semi-automation,” according to ILA.

USMX, an association of companies that operate East and Gulf Coast ports, has argued that it is “not seeking technology that would eliminate jobs” but that “continued modernization” is necessary.

“Unfortunately, the ILA is insisting on an agreement that would move our industry backward by restricting future use of technology that has existed in some of our ports for nearly two decades – making it impossible to evolve to meet the nation’s future supply chain demands,” USMX said in a statement.

ILA has said it supports modernization but opposes any form of automation, which it argues threatens dockworkers’ jobs.

“Their endgame is clear: establish semi-automation now and pave the way for full automation later,” the union wrote in a message to members. “We’ve seen this bait-and-switch strategy in other parts of the world and in other industries, and we will not let it happen on the East and Gulf Coasts.”

Trump backed the dockworkers and their demands for automation protections Thursday, after meeting with ILA President Harold Daggett at Mar-a-Lago.

“There has been a lot of discussion having to do with ‘automation’ on United States docks. I’ve studied automation, and know just about everything there is to know about it,” the president-elect said in a post on Truth Social.

“The amount of money saved is nowhere near the distress, hurt, and harm it causes for American Workers, in this case, our Longshoremen,” he added.

The president's support for the ILA is a notable example of a top Republican backing a union in a showdown with a major company, breaking from the GOP's traditionally hostile stance toward labor actions.

“In over 25 years of working in Washington, I have never seen a Republican take up the mantle for working-class people. President-elect Trump proved me wrong yesterday,” Dugget said in a statement after his meeting with Trump.

“He didn’t just tell us in private that he supports workers — he made it clear to the whole world.”

Trump and the GOP have increasingly found alignment with labor in recent years.

Teamsters President Sean O’Brien made an appearance at the Republican National Convention (RNC) in July, and the union ultimately bucked a nearly three-decade trend of backing Democrats and declined to endorse either candidate this cycle.

Trump also announced last month that he plans to nominate Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-Ore.) to serve as his Labor secretary. Chavez-DeRemer is one of only three Republicans to back the PRO Act, legislation that seeks to rein in the so-called gig economy and boost workers’ organizing rights.

Some labor experts, however, are casting doubt on Trump's pro-union stances given his previous administration's efforts to weaken labor rights.

“We will see what it means,"said Patricia Campos-Medina, executive director of The Worker Institute at Cornell University. "It is up in the air. We know that Donald Trump has a record of saying what gets him a lot of coverage and votes ... We will see how committed he is to labor very soon.”

Trump’s maneuvers may be a strategic move to avoid a strike that could derail his economic agenda, Masters added.

“Trump’s hyperbole seeks to break the deadlock,” he said in a statement to The Hill, adding, “He is using the bully pulpit to bring the parties together. Sometimes a proverbial kick in the pants is necessary to get them off the dime.”

The president-elect campaigned on a commitment to bring down prices following the inflation spike that occurred under President Biden. However, a port strike could derail Trump's plans for the economy.

During the October strike, experts estimated that the work stoppage could cost up to $5 billion a day. A longer-term strike could drive up costs for consumers and cause shortages.

Trump’s support for the dockworkers puts pressure on USMX to slow the phase-in of automation, said Campos-Medina.

However, she suggested it’s unlikely that the move toward automation can be halted entirely.

All 10 of the U.S.’s largest container ports use automation technology to handle and process cargo, according to a March report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

Automation has long been a concern for workers across numerous industries. These concerns have been heightened by the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) in recent years.

AI was a key sticking point in negotiations between movie studios and screenwriters and actors’ unions last year, which brought Hollywood to a standstill with a pair of monthslong strikes.

As the January deadline nears for ILA and USMX to reach an agreement, Trump could attempt to bring the two sides together to ensure a strike is averted even before he reaches the Oval Office.

“The fact of the matter is that the Biden administration is an outgoing administration that doesn't have much influence anymore, and it's never shown in predisposition to really get involved in these kinds of things,” Masters told The Hill.

“So for all practical purposes, Trump is the current president, and I think that he would not hesitate to bring the parties together and see what he could do to solve this problem so it's not on this plate when he takes the oath of office on the 20th,” he added.

However, if Trump assumes the presidency under the shadow of a strike, he will have to balance the competing interests of working-class voters and the business community, both of which have been crucial sources of support for the president-elect.

“It's going to be an interesting first month for Donald Trump,” Campos-Medina noted, adding, “He has a tight rope to maneuver.”

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