'I will cripple you': Longshoremen union pres warns America as dockworkers strike takes hold of ports nationwide

International Longshoremen Association (ILA) President Harold Daggett said the strike his union launched on Tuesday would “cripple” America with a shut down threatening much of the US economy. “I will cripple you and you have no idea what that means,” Daggett said.

In a news scrum, Daggett said the issue for workers is protection against automation which he says is currently “not strong enough, because what happens is they come in with new technology. We just caught them in Mobile, Alabama called autogate, and that means the trucks are coming in and they're already checked in somewhere else and not using the checkers in the ILA to circumvent the contract. They don't care,” he said.

“They don't care,” he repeated. “It's not fair. And if we don't put our foot down now, they would like to run over us and we're not gonna allow that,” Daggett said, demanding that “Washington … put so much pressure” on port authorities that they will cave to union demands. “Cars won’t come in, food won't come in, clothing won't come in. You know how many people depend on our jobs? Half the world.”

Another grievance for the longshoremen is wages that they say aren’t keeping pace with inflation. But Daggett has opened negotiations with a demand for a 77 percent pay increase while the US Maritime Alliance, which represents the ports, has offered 50 percent raises over six years while pledging to limit the degree of automation on the waterfront.

The Biden-Harris administration's Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo admitted on Monday that she has not been concerned about a strike that could create shortages of food, pharmaceuticals and hundreds of consumer goods.

Daggett outlined a virtual nightmare for the American economy if the strike continues, threatening that dealers “can't sell cars because the cars ain't coming in off the ships. They get laid off. Third week, malls start closing down. They can't get the goods from China. They can't sell clothes,” he said. A delay in the longshoremen returning to work could take months for the nation to recover from.

“Everything in the United States comes on a ship. They go out of business. Construction workers get laid off because the materials aren't coming in, the steel's not coming in, the lumber is not coming in. They lose their jobs,” Daggett said, insisting that the companies would be “better off sitting down and let’s get a contract.”

Daggett dismissed demands from some, including the US Chamber of Commerce, that President Joe Biden invoke the Taft-Harley Act, which would prevent a strike or work stoppage if it is deemed to be in the national interest to do so.