Last October, the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) struck at 36 ports, threatening chaos in the global shipping industry. After just three days on the picket lines, the 47,000 dockworkers were offered a 61.5% raise over six years.
This concession from the shipping magnates shows, yet again, that the collective strength of the working class lies in its ability to shut down the production and flow of goods. Not a wheel turns, not a light bulb shines, and not a ship unloads without the kind permission of the working class! When we wield this power effectively, we can score big victories.
Backroom negotiations
Unfortunately, instead of broadening the struggle and fighting for even more, the ILA leadership “suspended” the strike until mid-January and entered into secret negotiations with the bosses over one critical, outstanding issue: automation. They reached a tentative agreement days before the deadline.
The terms of the agreement haven’t been released yet, and the secrecy should put the workers on guard. If this is such a good agreement, why not publicize it? Automation can weaken workers in future strikes. When telephone workers went on strike in the 1970s, they disrupted many phone calls. This did not happen in later strikes after switchboards were fully automated.
Dockworkers can see the writing on the wall: the shipping bosses want to save lots of money by replacing as many of them as possible with automated systems.
However, instead of mobilizing the immense power of the dockworkers and the rest of our class, ILA leaders placed their faith in backroom negotiations and capitalist politicians. During the strike, they allowed union workers to handle military cargo and touted Biden’s Labor Secretary as an “ally.” This year, ILA President Harold Daggett wrote that Donald Trump has “proven … to be one of the best friends of working men and women in the United States.”
It’s easy to flirt with the working class on the campaign trail. In words, Trump backed the ILA against the job-cutting bosses. But now he is in office and has to pick a side. His inner circle shows which side he will take. Would a “friend of workers” have Elon Musk—the world’s richest man, a huge proponent of AI as a tool to downsize the workforce, and prodigious practitioner of layoffs—as his right-hand man?
Workers should have no illusions in any capitalist politician. It is the role of workers’ leaders to expose them and to build a class-independent alternative. The capitalist state is not a neutral arbiter between workers and the bosses. It is a tool in the hands of the capitalist class. By relying on politicians like Trump instead of the vast potential power of the working class, the ILA leadership is making a critical mistake that will come back to haunt the union.
Instead of mobilizing the immense power of the dockworkers and the rest of our class, ILA leaders placed their faith in backroom negotiations and capitalist politicians. / Image: ILA
What program and methods are necessary?
To defend ourselves from the onslaught of the bosses, workers must be united as a class. This can only be done by raising demands that heighten all workers’ understanding of key issues.
In the case of the dockworkers’ struggle against automation, this means fighting for a reduction of the working week with no loss in pay, and no layoffs or attrition—meaning no loss in the number of jobs over time. If 10 workers retire, 10 new workers should be hired. No secret negotiations. Negotiations should take place with the active participation of the workers at every stage, where we can fully expose the dishonest and treacherous methods of the bosses.
None of these demands will be won without a fight. That’s why workers can only rely on their own power. The police, military, courts, and politicians are all in the hands of the bosses. The law serves the capitalist class—not us. The labor movement must be mobilized to do what is necessary to win our demands.
Eliminating backroom horse trading in favor of fully democratic rank-and-file engagement points the way towards the ultimate goal of workers’ control over production. If the bosses use their ownership to lay off workers, why should they own these companies at all? Why is it up to them to implement automation, and not the workers themselves?
Automation under union control could bring about reduced hours of work and a better life, while under capitalist control, it just increases unemployment. Under a workers’ government, shipping companies would be nationalized and run by elected and recallable committees that represent the dockworkers and the broader working class.
These are life-and-death questions for the ILA and every union. Sooner or later, the quality of leadership will have to be faced directly by the union membership if the “race to the bottom” is to be halted and reversed.