WASHINGTON — Greg Regan and Shari Semelsberger, President and Secretary-Treasurer of the Transportation Trades Department (TTD) of the AFL-CIO, issued this statement of support of America’s largest port workers union, the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA), as they continue negotiations with USMX ahead of the October 1 expiration of the current contract:
“As America’s largest transportation labor federation, we support the 85,000 unionized port workers who are fighting for a strong contract. Their fight is our collective fight across the labor movement. USMX must come to the table and seriously engage with the ILA union.
“Relying on Taft-Hartley is not a winning strategy and should not be USMX’s expected path to resolution. The Biden-Harris Administration has already stated, in their own words, ‘we’ve never invoked Taft–Hartley to break a strike and are not considering doing so now.’
“America’s longshoremen worked tirelessly through the COVID-19 pandemic to keep our supply chain moving. They brave dangerous working conditions on the job to serve as a linchpin of our national economy. Despite years of tireless bargaining efforts, the ILA’s efforts have been unjustly branded as unreasonable. Why? For simply seeking the wages and benefits commensurate with their labor. Nothing more and nothing less.
“There is only one unreasonable party in these negotiations: USMX. Their exploitation of longshoremen is downright shameful. USMX has had years to come to the negotiating table and bargain in good faith. Instead, they have refused to engage in the process seriously and clung to the mantra of corporate greed. Now, facing the midnight clock, USMX is crying wolf.
“Let us be clear: the employers, not the workers, have shirked their responsibility and punted labor negotiations to the 11th hour, when the damage to the public and the national supply chain would be most detrimental. While USMX seeks to cast blame on the frontline workers who move our supply chain, they are at fault.
“Remember this as they seek shelter from the disaster that they created.”
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