The president and vice president are the only elected positions in our Constitution with a national constituency. Yet, looking at their statements after the suspension of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) strike, one would think Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are working for organized labor.
Biden said, “Today’s tentative agreement on a record wage and an extension of the collective bargaining process represents critical progress towards a strong contract.” It is not supposed to be the president’s job to get a strong contract for the ILA.
The president should not care at all what the contract says. And as long as an agreement is made without an economically harmful work stoppage, he shouldn’t care at all about the negotiations between employers and employees. That is their business, not the public’s.
But it becomes the public’s business when a union uses its government-granted monopoly power to harm the public. And that is exactly what the ILA did by calling a strike on the entire East and Gulf Coasts during a hurricane recovery after turning down an offer of a 50 percent wage increase. In that situation, the Taft-Hartley Act empowers the president, as the higher-ranking elected official with a national constituency, to act in the national interest by stopping the strike.
Biden covered for the ILA by saying, “I want to thank the union workers, the carriers, and the port operators for acting patriotically to reopen our ports and ensure the availability of critical supplies for Hurricane Helene recovery and rebuilding.” Only after it secured an agreement for a 62 percent wage increase, after turning down 50 percent, did the ILA’s “patriotism” kick in.
Biden said:
I congratulate the dockworkers from the ILA, who deserve a strong contract after sacrificing so much to keep our ports open during the pandemic. And I applaud the port operators and carriers who are members of the US Maritime Alliance for working hard and putting a strong offer on the table.
This is phrased to appear as though he is giving parallel praise to both sides. But he is actually praising the ILA for being the ILA and praising the employers for doing what the ILA wanted. There is no planet on which a 50 percent wage increase over six years for doing exactly the same work, a tripling of employer contributions to retirement benefits, and an increase in health-care benefits is not a “strong offer,” yet the ILA turned that down in favor of holding the U.S. economy hostage. Biden’s definition of “strong offer” is apparently “whatever the ILA accepts.”
Harris’s statement was briefer. Here’s the whole thing:
Tonight the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and the United States Maritime Alliance came together to reach a tentative agreement that reopens the East Coast and Gulf ports, and I want to applaud all involved for their efforts. This step indicates progress toward a strong contract and represents the power of collective bargaining. As I have said, this is about fairness -– and our economy works best when workers share in record profits. Dockworkers deserve a fair share for their hard work getting essential goods out to communities across America.
It does not represent “the power of collective bargaining” for a union to walk away from the negotiating table over the existence of an automatic gate at one port in June, never return, and go on strike in October. That is what the ILA did here. It was the power of bullying that got them what they wanted.
Harris is indulging a common rhetorical trick by equating “workers” with “unionized workers in this one instance,” despite the fact that 94 percent of American private-sector workers are not unionized, and the ILA was perfectly happy to screw every other worker in the country to get what it wanted.
As for “record profits,” ocean carriers made huge profits in 2021 and 2022 when container prices were high. But in ordinary times, ocean carriers are barely profitable, if at all. In many cases they are propped up by subsidies from their home governments. Is $150,000 a year, not counting fringe benefits, a “fair share”? A majority of longshoremen in New York and New Jersey were making that much or more in 2020. Why was a 50 percent raise on top of that not “fair”?
National elected officials truly working in the national interest would, when confronted with ILA bullying, stand up to the bullies and prevent a strike while demanding concessions on automation so that ports work better for Americans, not for the parochial interests of the ILA. Biden and Harris stood with the bullies instead.