Originally published in the Autumn 2024 edition of the Virginia Defender, issue 75, printed November 6. Reproduced here for accessibility and archival purposes. To find other stories in the Autumn 2024 issue or to download the full PDF, see this post. For other issues dating back to 2012, see the Full Issues page.

By Kat McNeal

At one minute past midnight on Oct. 1, some 50,000 workers represented by the International Longshoremen’s Association went out on strike, bringing 36 ports from Maine to Texas to a virtual standstill. It was their first walkout since 1977.

The issues: wages; the appropriation by employers of supplemental pay called “container royalty;” and, crucially, the future of dock jobs in the face of increasing automation.

The three-day action caused news outlets around the country to breathlessly report on possible shortages of consumer goods and other potential impacts to the economy. Would the U.S. run short of bananas? Should we all hoard toilet paper?

And aren’t the port workers overpaid anyway? And isn’t workplace automation inevitable, an unstoppable trend that will continue until we’re all jobless in a world run by robots?

Every business page had its opinion, but the longshore workers didn’t budge.

On Oct. 3, the United States Maritime Alliance, which represents the major shipping lines, blinked. USMX and the ILA came to an agreement to suspend the strike and come back to the negotiating table, with the expired Master Contract extended until Jan. 15.

In the meantime, USMX will raise wages 62% over six years – 15% less than the union initially asked for, but 12% more than the alliance initially offered.

This gives the parties time to continue negotiating outstanding issues, prime among them the union’s demand to ban new port automation technologies, which for now means automated cranes, gates, and container-moving trucks.

The affected ports resumed work on Oct. 4.

In Virginia, ILA picket lines were in evidence 24 hours a day at the four Port of Virginia marine terminals in Norfolk, Portsmouth and Newport News. The Norfolk International Terminal is Virginia’s largest shipping terminal and the state’s only semiautomated terminal, with 90 automated cranes. Virginia Port Authority personnel, however, were not on strike, so the Richmond Marine Terminal and Virginia Inland Port in Front Royal continued work normally. According to an ILA press release, military shipments and passenger cruise ships were handled normally during the strike, a longstanding union policy.

This action demonstrated the incredible power of organized workers, especially those in key areas of the economy like shipping. It also brought to the forefront the issue of automation under a profit-driven system, something more of us may face as technology like AI and self-driving cars become cheaper and more common.

In an ideal world, some jobs should be automated for efficiency, safety and convenience. But if you think we live in an ideal world, you probably wouldn’t be reading this newspaper. The people who do those jobs still have rent and mortgages to pay and food to buy after the automated crane or truck puts them out of a job. And that crane or truck isn’t going to be paying taxes or supporting restaurants or other local businesses.

And depending upon how the current negotiations go, the workers may have to go out again. The strike was only suspended, not ended.

Stay tuned.