Directly after Hurricane Helene impacted hundreds of thousands of Americans, the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) led a three-day strike that shut down container ports from Maine to Texas. Union agitators ended the strike after extracting a 62% wage increase from port employers over the next six years.
The ILA strike is a teaching moment: unions have too much power over the economy, and Big Labor’s tentacles should not spread to new industries.
Despite the fact that a record-low 6% of private sector workers are unionized, union bosses have become increasingly emboldened to flex their muscles in recent years. The Biden-Harris Department of Labor and National Labor Relations Board have worked to enact Big Labor’s agenda through regulation. The Biden-Harris administration has sought to shred protections for independent contractors, destroy the franchise business model, and erode workplace speech. The establishment press has helped foster Big Labor’s narrative by amplifying their isolated victories while ignoring notable failures.
Given that Big Labor spends billions of dollars each campaign cycle to elect Democrats, the Biden-Harris administration has condoned Big Labor’s increasingly egregious behavior. A recent NLRB court ruling held that “profane, vulgar, racist, and otherwise insulting language” does not violate labor law as long as it is in service of union activity. The NLRB has tipped the scales in favor of unions during organizing drives through last minute filings designed to paint a targeted company in a bad light.
As a result, union corruption is rampant. In 2023, the Office of Labor Management the Office of Labor Management Standards (OLMS) conducted 155 criminal investigations into union activity, handing down 39 indictments and 57 convictions. Union crimes the OLMS prosecuted include petty theft, embezzlement, racketeering, and falsifying records.
In this environment, it is no wonder ILA President Harold Daggett staged Big Labor’s most audacious stunt in years: threatening an economic shutdown on the heels of a hurricane. Speaking directly to the businesses and workers that would suffer due to ILA’s strike, Daggett said: “I’ll cripple you, and you have no idea what that means.” Daggett bragged that a strike would “shut down the whole world.”
A shutdown of the 36 ports that joined the ILA’s picket line would cost the economy between $3.8 billion and $4.5 billion per day. After three days, the ILA agreed to end the strike until January after port operators agreed to a 62% wage increase. The ILA also demanded a ban on port automation, an assured flash point as negotiations continue. Daggett and his cronies are perfectly content with American ports being among the world’s least efficient so long as the union dues gravy train keeps running.
Union bosses can only behave this way because they have monopoly power over labor supply in certain industries. A 62% wage increase would cripple any normal business. Big Labor’s monopoly power, buttressed by an executive branch that greases the skids for union interests at every turn, allows union bosses to extract exorbitant benefits from port employers. This arrangement has benefited Daggett handsomely, given that his more than $1 million annual salary has afforded him a yacht, luxury cars, and multiple mansions.
The ports strike is just one example of the threat that radical union leaders pose to vital infrastructure. In November 2023, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers launched the “Pharmacy Guild” in an attempt to spread Big Labor’s tentacles into pharmacies, a group that the establishment media has breathlessly touted as the newest frontier of union organizing. Despite the fact that only 3 CVS stores have joined the Guild so far, reporters uncritically reprint the Guild’s assertion that they will unionize 90% of pharmacies in five years.
Union organizers already enmeshed in the healthcare system are taking a page out of the ILA’s playbook. The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) represent thousands of California CVS employees. Last month, UFCW locals voted to authorize their bargaining team to call an unfair labor practice strike for California CVS stores. This may not be all that surprising given that it is California. But if CVS workers strike, Californians may not be able to access medication, another example of union bosses putting themselves first.
Despite declining membership numbers, union bosses are doing everything they can to hold onto the power they still have. The ILA port strike is an informative example of how much of a hammerlock unions have over key industries, and a warning sign against further union encroachment in non-unionized industries.
