Major US ports will stay shut until pay demands are met, the union boss representing striking dockworkers has said.
Harold Daggett, head of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA), made the vow on a picket line in New Jersey on Tuesday, as tens of thousands of dockworkers on the east and gulf coasts walked out in a bid to win a better labour deal.
“We’re going to fight for it and we’re going to win or this port will never open up again,” he said. “I’m not playing games here.”
Businesses are bracing for the possibility of a prolonged ports shut down, which threatens to cause havoc to global trade and the US economy.
President Joe Biden has so far rebuffed calls by some of country’s biggest business groups to use federal power to reopen the ports for 80 days, suspending the strike to provide a cooling-off period for further negotiation.
“It’s only fair that workers, who put themselves at risk during the pandemic to keep ports open, see a meaningful increase in their wages as well,” Biden said.
“Now is not the time for ocean carriers to refuse to negotiate a fair wage for these essential workers while raking in record profits.”
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump also backed the striking port workers.
“American workers should be able to negotiate for better wages, especially since the shipping companies are mostly foreign flag vessels”, he said in a statement.
The strike, the first since 1977 for the ILA, has brought to a halt container traffic across 14 of the country’s busiest ports, including in New York, Georgia and Texas.
The ports are estimated by experts to handle more than a third of the US’s imports and exports. Disruption could lead to delays on goods deliveries for businesses and consumers.
The president said officials would be on the alert for signs of prices being unfairly hiked in the event of potential shortages.
Talks on a new deal were stalled for months ahead of the strike, but the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX), which represents shipping firms and port associations, said that the two sides had started to trade proposals again.
Under the 2018 contract that expired on Monday, dockworkers earned a base hourly wage of $20-$39, as well as other benefits, including royalties tied to container traffic.
USMX said its most recent offer would boost pay by nearly 50%, triple company contributions to retirement and improve healthcare, among other concessions.
The organisation said the offer exceeded “every other recent union settlement” and called the current stand-off “completely unavoidable”.
“We look forward to hearing from the union about how we can return to the table and actually bargain, which is the only way to reach a resolution,” it said.
However, the ILA’s Mr Daggett said that there had been “nothing” so far to bring the union and companies together to end the strike.
He said he was prepared to keep the ports shut until companies agreed to boost hourly pay by $5 for each year of the contract. The union, which has about 47,000 active members according to federal filings, is also seeking protections against automation.
“I’m going to fight for it because those greedy companies are making billions of dollars and they don’t want to share,” he said. “I want my members taken care of for the rest of their lives and that’s why we’re out here.”