You heard the news reports but there are some BIG aspects of the recent dockworkers strike. Take a deep dive as Jacobin shares The Port Strike Called the Shipping Companies’ Bluff…. Do you notice any similarity to the UAW contract dispute?
Until the new wage increases go into effect, the top rate for ILA longshoremen is $39/hour. Assuming a longshore worker puts in forty hours per week, at the top rate they’re pulling in $81,120 per year. (ILA president Harold Daggett has been at pains to emphasize that longshoremen clearing six figures are putting in significant overtime.) For the frequently cited figure of 45,000 ILA members under the USMX contract (this is the high-end employment estimate, which may be as low as 25,000), that amounts to about $3.65 billion every year in annual base labor costs.
Under the new wage agreement, ILA longshore workers’ wage rate increase will be $6 for the first year, $5 for the second year, $4 for the third year, and $3 per year for the final three years of the contract. Over this six-year period, it’s going to cost USMX $8.89 billion more in labor costs than had longshore workers remained stuck at the $39/hour rate. It’s back-of-the-napkin math, but provided we’re in the general vicinity of what it will cost the USMX member companies, take note of the following: a single carrier member of USMX, Maersk, could have fronted the ILA this money out of its 2022 profits alone — and still have posted a record profit.
If it seems the business media reports on this strike and our strike were all about exaggerating worker pay while looking the other way when it is time to address the company profits you may be on to something.
( graphic by Vika Glitter on Pixabay)
