Dale Walker has been a member of the International Longshoremen's Association Local 1408 for more than 20 years. He was among union members who picketed along Heckscher Drive on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, during the ILA's first work stoppage since 1977. | Will Brown, Jacksonville Today
Published on October 1, 2024 at 6:54 pm
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Before it was anything else, Jacksonville was a port city.
The men and women who are members of the International Longshoremen’s Association Local 1408 spent Tuesday demonstrating along Heckscher Drive to remind Northeast Florida motorists of their role in powering this region’s first industry.
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The ILA’s six-year agreement with the United States Maritime Alliance expired Monday. Its membership at ports across the Eastern Seaboard and Gulf Coast refuse to work without a contract.
In Jacksonville that means more than 1,800 people are demonstrating and not on the docks.
Local 1408 President Warren Smith says his peers across the country want to be remunerated for their effort in keeping the American economy afloat amid upheaval in the shipping and logistics industries over the last six years.
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“This isn’t an ILA Local 1408 or (Local) 1593 or just a Jacksonville area problem,” Smith says. “The issues that we have are not uncommon. They’re common to every port. We’re facing the same battles. I’m so glad that our president, Harold J. Daggett, has taken the stance that he’s taken to unite these ports and to push for a strong contract for every port.
“The threat is automation. Corporate greed, that’s our threat. (So are) the people who seek to take the labor performed by our hand and give us a wage that is without the dignity that it deserves.”
Longshoremen negotiations
According to NPR, the ILA and the United States Maritime Alliance have not met face to face since June.
On Monday, the U.S. Maritime Alliance said it had offered the union raises of nearly 50% and a tripling of retirement contributions, as well as the same restrictive language around automation that was in the last contract. That includes a ban on fully-automated equipment and a requirement that any use of semiautomated equipment be negotiated.
On Tuesday afternoon, Daggett outlined publicly for the first time the union’s demands, which include a 77% pay raise.
“We are now demanding $5 an hour increase in wages for each of the six years of a new ILA-USMX Master Contract,” Daggett said. “Plus, we want absolute airtight language that there will be no automation or semiautomation, and we are demanding all Container Royalty monies go to the ILA.”
That demand would raise the top hourly wage from $39 to $69 by 2030.
Smith says not everyone understands the effect the union’s members have on their communities.
“In a lot of ways, they are about to see our impact on the economy,” Smith says. “All of these warehouses (people are) building up and down Heckscher Drive. You’re talking about hundreds of jobs at a time and thousands of jobs throughout the city that are directly fed because of the commerce that we remove from the ships that are imported and exported through Jaxport.
“You have jobs throughout this region that are depending upon the raw goods and raw materials that we’re bringing off of the ships.”
As Smith spoke, tractor trailers, trucks, sedans and others honked their horns in solidarity with the Longshoremen.
Florida has experienced record growth in its cargo business since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. Earlier this year, the Florida Ports Council announced the 16 ports in the state moved 114.25 million tons of cargo in 2023.
Florida’s largest container port
Jacksonville is Florida’s largest container port by volume. At the Jacksonville Port Authority’s most recent board meeting on Sept. 20, Jaxport reported its container volumes through the first 11 months of the 2023-24 fiscal year, 1.23 million TEUs, were 3% ahead of the same period in 2023.
Local 1408 members are not Jaxport employees. However, one of Jaxport’s biggest tenants, SSA Marine, employs scores of members.
“We expect the strike to impact about one-third of Jaxport’s business, particularly international container volumes operated by SSA Jacksonville, as well as international vehicle volumes,” Jaxport wrote in a statement.
The strike will not affect local operations to Puerto Rico.
Like the port authority, the Florida Ports Council also shared a statement about the labor negotiations and expressed hope that the ILA and United States Maritime Alliance will soon reach a resolution.
“As Floridians and our neighbors in the Southeast recover from Hurricane Helene, we have a genuine concern about getting much needed supplies to storm-ravaged communities in Florida and up the Eastern seaboard where so many of Florida’s imports are ultimately destined.”
Smith stated that he and his peers are on the docks through rain, wind, sunshine and other conditions. The ILA’s first work stoppage since 1977, Smith believes, is an opportunity to earn a part of the wealth that their hands and bodies cultivated.
Information from National Public Radio was used in this report.
