The Port of Baltimore could be headed for its second partial shutdown this year.
A six-year contract between a dockworkers’ union and shipping companies expires at the end of this month, and labor leaders say they are closer than ever to their first strike in nearly 50 years. Such an action would affect ports along the East Coast and the Gulf of Mexico, upend the global supply chain and put thousands of Baltimore-area residents out of work.
The International Longshoremen’s Association represents port workers from Texas to Maine. The shipping companies and dock operators are represented by a trade group called the United States Maritime Alliance. Reuters reported that officials from both sides are meeting this week in the hopes of averting a strike. According to the trade group, the current contract covers about 25,000 workers.
The longshoremen’s union has three local organizations operating in the Port of Baltimore. The largest, Local 333, has about 1,850 members who load and unload ships in public and privately owned terminals in the Baltimore area.
Much of the port was shut down earlier this year after a container ship struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge in March, toppling the structure and killing six construction workers.
That meant millions of dollars in lost wages for people whose livelihoods were connected to the port, according to government officials. Now, another shutdown is looming.
The longshoremen are a fraction of the more than 20,000 people whose jobs are directly connected to the Port of Baltimore, but their work is critical to the port’s operations.
Scott Cowan, president of Local 333, did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but the union’s national leadership has been issuing press releases throughout the summer, saying a strike is possible.
In a video published on YouTube on Wednesday, ILA President Harold Daggett said the shipping companies are betting that workers won’t actually strike. But Daggett said this is no bluff.
“Mark my words, we’ll shut them down Oct. 1 if we don’t get the kind of wages we deserve,” Daggett said.
Last year, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, which represents West Coast dock workers, secured a contract that gave members a 32% pay raise over six years.
But pay isn’t the only sticking point for the East Coast dockworkers. The union is also targeting automation.
According to a June press release from the ILA, the union walked away from the negotiating table after learning that a marine terminal in Mobile, Alabama, started using an automated system to process trucks entering through a gate.
Dennis Daggett, vice president of the ILA, said the union would be battling automation like that “for the rest of our existence.”
“We do not believe that robotics should take over a human being’s job,” he said in Wednesday’s video.
In Baltimore, the port is overseen by a state agency called the Maryland Port Administration. Like most port authorities, the Maryland Port Administration does not have a seat at the bargaining table, but spokesman Richard Scher said officials are “closely monitoring” the talks. He stressed the importance of reaching a deal without a work stoppage.
“We implore both sides to come together and negotiate an agreement that properly compensates the men and women of the International Longshoremen’s Association while maintaining cost effective and efficient cargo flows,” Scher said in a statement.
If a deal is not reached, it could lead to the union’s first strike since 1977, when about 4,000 workers in the Port of Baltimore walked off the job, according to archival reporting from The Baltimore Sun.
Workers were striking over pay and income security, but similar to today, they also were wary of a new technology that was revolutionizing the industry and reducing reliance on laborers: the shipping container.
