ILA chief calls for global union fight against port, maritime automation

The head of the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) is calling for global labor action against ocean carriers and marine terminal operators that look to automate their port operations, singling out Maersk for its automation projects along the U.S. West Coast.

In his opening speech Monday at the ILA's quadrennial convention, President Harold J. Daggett said those automation efforts can spread across the world and to other parts of the shipping industry, requiring a global response by longshore workers and other maritime workers. The bid to halt further automation comes as the ILA adds container tracking to the technological risks facing its members.

"Dockworkers around the world are facing a major threat to their jobs and their future — automation," Daggett said. "We are all together in solidarity around the world. We will fight against automation of the maritime industry."

Daggett delivered the remarks as 1,600 union delegates gathered in Hollywood, Fla., to stake out their positions for a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) for 45,000 dockworkers from Maine to Texas. Negotiations are expected to start in August or September once the ILA's wage scale committees convene with maritime employers.

The current CBA, set to expire in September 2024, specifically prohibits fully automated terminals and equipment along the East and Gulf coasts during its term. Partial automation of container operations is only allowed when maritime employers institute worker protections such as retraining or new work assignments.

During his speech, Daggett showed a video of automated straddle carriers operating inside a portion of APM's Pier 400 terminal in Los Angeles. The video claimed that automation at Pier 400 and other terminals in Los Angeles and Long Beach cost some 600 dockworker jobs.

"Who the hell is a foreign company like Maersk to come to America and build a fully automated terminal like that one we just saw?" Daggett said. "Those are jobs lost in America and profits sent back to Copenhagen."

Maersk said in a statement to the Journal of Commerce that the number of longshore workers at Pier 400 has fluctuated due to port volumes, the impact of the pandemic, and the ongoing modernization project.

The carrier referred to employment figures from the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), which show that the number of longshore workers in Local 13, which provides the bulk of port workers, who were paid for one or more hours of work at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach grew from 7,331 in 2019 to 7,550 in 2022, according to the PMA's annual report.

Daggett calls for 'global response'

Citing the development of an autonomous electric cargo ship by Swedish chemical company Yara, Daggett urged seafarer unions to join a proposed global alliance of dockworker unions "to combat automation and new technology."

"There is going to be an explosion and the ILA and dockers across the world are going to light the fuse," Daggett said. "It's time we put companies out of business that push automation.

"Around the world at the same time, they want to eliminate our jobs," he added. "This is a global crisis that demands a global response."

While not addressed in his opening speech, Daggett said in his president's report released Monday that container tracking devices are the most "brazen and well-publicized attempt to circumvent the ILA's jurisdiction."

His report pointed to Hapag-Lloyd's announcement that it would put sensors on its fleet of three million containers in 2023 as a risk to ILA clerk and checker jobs because the sensors can transmit information "without human inspection or input."

Speaking at an April 2022 meeting on maritime data convened by Federal Maritime Commissioner Carl Bentzel, a Hapag-Lloyd executive said that "organized labor can neutralize the value you can extract from automation using high-speed data."

Daggett's report, however, countered that "there is no empirical evidence establishing that automated ports are altogether more productive, less expensive to operate, or safer than their conventional counterparts."

John Nardi, president of the Shipping Association of New York and New Jersey, told the convention attendees that they themselves need to be more efficient and productive in order to mitigate job losses from automation.

"The fight against automation happens at every port and terminal every day," Nardi said. "If the performance and productivity are there, there is no need for automation."

Author: Michael Angell, Associate Editor for JOC

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This article was published by S&P Global Market Intelligence and not by S&P Global Ratings, which is a separately managed division of S&P Global.