Charleston ILA planning to join thousands of port workers in strike
CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) – When the clock strikes midnight Tuesday, tens of thousands of dock workers plan to strike at all Atlantic and Gulf Coast ports.
The mass walk-out at ports, feared to have a trickle-down effect in the industry, looms as the six-year contract between the International Longshoremen’s Association and the United States Maritime Alliance nears expiration.
“It’s tough. It’s tough. Especially for the drivers. You know, if they don’t work, they don’t get paid,” said Marvin Cumbee.
Cumbee is the Terminal Manager at All Points Transport, an intermodal trucking company in North Charleston. He said customers have come to them requesting to pre-fill the containers ahead of the potential strike.
He said what’s usually an average of 15 containers at the yard, is now 55-60.
“What we have that we pre-pulled, we will schedule delivery with the customers. And once those deliveries are done, then they’re done. The empty will be on the yard, or the load will be on the yard, if the customer loads the container and then that’s it. It stops again until work goes back again,” Cumbee told News 2.
The 25,000 workers covered in the current agreement are calling for better wages and a complete ban on cranes, gates, and container loading and unloading in their next Master Contract. As of Monday evening, there was still no settlement.
ILA represents 85,000 members in total.
“This could impact consumer goods, agricultural exports, automobile exports, manufacturing imports, and tourism. There could be significant backlog, delays in goods, rising costs for all those things…” explained Thomas Fellows when asked how this could affect Charleston.
Fellows is a workforce commentator and said the strike would be the first of its kind in about 50 years. He told News 2 automation is something West Coast ports are already experimenting with.
“Artificial intelligence that will come into play for this sector of the economy is logistics software, autonomous cranes, and a robotics system for unloading and loading,” Fellows explained to News 2.
Charles Brave Jr., the president of the ILA Local 1422 in Charleston, confirmed this will take effect locally. He said the ILA will continue to handle perishable goods, military cargo, blood plasma, and passenger cruise ships.
Kenneth Riley, the ILA International Vice President for the Port of Charleston, released a statement to News 2 which read:
“ILA locals in the Port of Charleston will be going on strike at 12:01 a.m. tonight along with every port from Boston to Houston. The six-year master contract between the ILA and the United States Maritime Alliance will expire at midnight without a new negotiated agreement in place.
Negotiating a long-term agreement that will be in place for a period of six years is serious business and the leadership must be equipped with studies of the maritime industry that will enable them to project at least six years ahead. Based on those projections the ILA has put forward a list of demands that will protect the general welfare of its membership well into the future.
Your American Dockworkers who kept the goods flowing in and out of this country during the pandemic are to be commended but more importantly compensated for what they were able to achieve on behalf of the American consumer. While our workers were becoming ill and many died, the foreign flag container carriers were racking up billions of dollars in profit because of their inflated shipping rates which by the way was being passed on to the American consumer. Their greed attributed to much of the inflation we are still experiencing today.
The strike action that will begin at 12:01 tonight will bring into focus the global agenda of these container carriers to exploit workers wherever and whenever they can. That exploitation includes their quest to install job eliminating technology which the ILA will never agree to. We will always join in the fight to protect good paying American jobs, be they union jobs or not.”
The South Carolina Ports Authority is not involved in negotiations but has extended its gate hours, according to an update released September 20th.
SC Ports said they are taking other measures to offset the impacts of the potential strike including operating at full staff and offering yard equipment availability.
Brave told News 2 ILA 1422 plans to hold a labor rally at 9:30 pm Monday at 1142 Morrison Drive.
