Just one week before the contract extension that ended the October strike was set to expire, the International Longshoremen Association (ILA) and United States Maritime Association (USMX) announced a new tentative agreement pending membership ratification. This came shortly after negotiations resumed with the ILA having an unlikely supporter, then President-elect Donald Trump.
After a December meeting with ILA President Harold Daggett, Trump announced his support in a statement on his social media platform, Truth Social. Trump dressed his support in a reactionary tone, making the workers’ struggle over automation out to be little more than a fight between a foreign company and American workers. It is important not to lose sight of the fact that it doesn’t matter where a company is based, capitalists will always attempt to use automation to increase production and eliminate jobs—especially unionized jobs.
After announcing the tentative agreement on January 8, Daggett claimed that Trump has proven himself to be “one of the best friends of working men and women in the United States.” Given both Trump’s business career and first term in office, it’s clear that Trump is far from a friend of the working class. During the campaign Trump tried to cause a divide within the labor movement, trying to take advantage of the historical differences between craft and industrial unions. He has followed his anti-worker campaign with a barrage of Executive Orders attacking working-class Americans.
ILA leadership hitching itself to Trump, may have successfully helped it gain this current tentative agreement, but it adds to the labor movement’s precarious position after Trump has filled his cabinet with union-busting robber barons and other anti-union blowhards. LUEL cautiously supports the ILA rank-and-file members’ win in protecting their jobs and maintaining livable wages but the labor movement cannot continue to rely on capitalist politicians. The only path forward to protect and maintain these gains going forward is for a class-oriented rank-and-file movement to lead the union in an anti-monopoly direction.
