The American economy is appealing to the crisis-ridden White House under Biden to prevent the strike at the East Coast docks
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About 150 industry associations, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, sent an open letter to the Biden administration last Tuesday calling on it to prevent a strike at East Coast docks, where the contract for more than 40,000 workers expires at the end of September.
There is enormous resistance among dockworkers to the onerous working conditions. In addition to labor barriers and safety issues, they also face the threat of their jobs being lost to automation. As in virtually every industry, ports are trying to maximize profits and eliminate thousands of jobs through new advances in artificial intelligence and automation. Weaponizing labor-saving technologies that could and should reduce workloads and improve workers’ quality of life and living standards is instead being used to accelerate a jobs massacre that has already cost around a million jobs in U.S. companies since the beginning of last year.
Fearing a labor rebellion, the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) threatened to strike if a new collective agreement was not reached by September 30. On June 10, the ILA canceled further talks with the US Maritime Alliance (USMX) after it was revealed that APM Terminals and Maersk were using automated systems to handle trucks.
The business groups’ letter called on the Biden White House to “work immediately with both parties to resume contract negotiations and ensure there are no disruptions to port operations and cargo handling.”
The letter expresses this in terms of “national security” and goes on to say:
One of the government’s key priorities has been supply chain resilience and addressing ongoing supply chain challenges. We continue to see challenges in the maritime supply chain due to ongoing attacks by the Houthis on vessels transiting the Red Sea. This has led to further supply chain issues: congestion and lack of equipment at overseas ports, capacity issues with carriers as they continue to withdraw vessels from the Red Sea, and increased freight rates.
With all these existing challenges, the last thing the supply chain needs is a strike or other disruption due to ongoing collective bargaining. As this Government has seen, even the threat of a strike or disruption can have a negative impact on the supply chain.
The letter ends with a call for an agreement that “ensures continued global competitiveness and that of supply chain participants” – or in plain language: an agreement that guarantees continued profits for US corporations.
Biden’s program of corporatism
Regardless of the letter, there is no doubt that Biden is already deeply involved in the talks – as he has been in all contract negotiations with industries that are considered critical to supply chains from the perspective of corporate interests and the national security apparatus.
Biden is doing this to protect the profits of US capitalism from the growing demands of the working class, while also preparing the country for greater participation in the global war that American imperialism is waging, including in Ukraine and the Gaza Strip.
Since taking office, Biden has presented himself as the “most pro-worker president in US history.” In reality, this means that he relies heavily on the services of the union bureaucracy to prevent strikes and enforce mass layoffs.
This was the case with the railroads in 2022. When workers rejected a White House-backed collective bargaining agreement, railroad union bureaucrats delayed strike action for months, giving Biden and Congress the time they needed to pass legislation preemptively banning strikes and enforcing the rejected collective bargaining agreement.
At West Coast docks covered by a separate International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) contract, the White House intervention was notable for its unprecedented timeliness and intensity. In 2022, in the weeks before the last contract expired, Biden spoke from the deck of a World War II-era battleship in the port of Los Angeles, blaming Russia and China for high inflation.
The ILWU kept workers on the job for over a year after the last contract expired while negotiations took place in the strictest secrecy. When workers began to take matters into their own hands, calling in sick and slowing down work, ILWU officials responded by announcing an early vote on a contract that acting Labor Secretary Julie Su was instrumental in drafting.
In the auto industry, the 2022 union elections overseen by the Labor Department were marred by voter suppression and led to the installation of a new president of the United Auto Workers, Shawn Fain. Fain is a key Biden ally. Last fall, they appeared on stage together to sell a new auto contract that is now being used to eliminate thousands of jobs. Meanwhile, Fain is a key campaigner for Biden’s re-election and has sought to shield Biden from mass protests over his role in the Gaza genocide.
The fact that the ILA felt compelled to threaten a strike is an indication of its fear that workers’ anger could easily spiral out of control.
A real fight requires a fight not only against USMX, but also against the ILA bureaucracy and both corporate-controlled political parties. ILA President Harold Daggett is an alleged ally of the Genovese family and received $855,261 in salary and expenses in 2023, according to the union’s filing with the U.S. Department of Labor. The ILA bureaucracy has spent decades enforcing sellouts, starting with the notorious pro-corporate stooge Joseph P. Ryan in the early 20th century.
The ILA is following the playbook of the Teamsters at UPS, who threatened to strike if an agreement was not reached before the old contract expired. In reality, the bureaucracy had no intention of calling a strike and has broken its own promise to do so.
The Teamsters’ so-called “strike readiness campaign” was designed to market a contract as a “credible strike threat” that is now being used to lay off more than 12,000 employees and warehouse workers, close 200 plants and “automate everything,” as UPS CEO Carole Tomé put it. The company cited the “worker safety” guaranteed by the contract as key to implementing its so-called “network of the future.”
The only organization that wanted to fight this sell-out from the standpoint of fighting the bureaucracy was the UPS Workers Rank-and-File Committee, which warned Teamsters officials at every turn about their activities and worked out a program of action on which workers could fight. The UPSWRFC is part of the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees, which includes worker-controlled committees around the world, including in the auto industry, railroads, and other workplaces where capitalist governments have cracked down on workers.
Favorable conditions for the fight against Biden and union bureaucrats
The open letter’s reference to “supply chain challenges” shows how strategically important the battle for East Coast ports is, not only for U.S. capitalism but also for the working class. U.S. companies, already struggling with sharply increased transportation costs due to the pandemic and war-related supply chain problems, can ill afford a disruption that would bring their global operations to a halt.
Control over supply chains is a central element of US policy in the global war. The ports are crucial for transporting weapons and military equipment to the battlefields in Ukraine, the Middle East and Asia.
A strike at the docks would have a galvanizing effect on workers not only in the United States but throughout the world, where they are facing the same attacks. Moreover, it would pose a serious challenge to the criminal war policy of the White House. The union bureaucrats, who are closely linked to the administration, have completely ignored the call of the Palestinian unions for industrial action to stop the supply of arms to Israel.
But there is growing support for such measures around the world. Protests have broken out in ports on the west coast against ships carrying Israeli weapons, and across Europe and Asia workers have refused to load ships bound for Israel. Recently, Turkish airport workers refused to refuel an Israeli airliner after an emergency landing.
The ruling class relies heavily on government intervention to prevent a strike – either through open fiat or by working with union mediators. But the talks come amid a deep crisis in the Biden administration. After last week’s disastrous debate performance, which revealed the 81-year-old president’s clear mental decline, it is increasingly likely that Biden will not be the nominee in November, or perhaps not even president when his contract expires.
A similar crisis is brewing in the union bureaucracy. In June, a federal inspector announced he was investigating corruption allegations against Fain and other high-ranking UAW officials. A federal judge also upheld the lawsuit filed by Will Lehman, a socialist autoworker who ran against Fain for president. The judge accuses the Labor Department of arbitrarily and capriciously dismissing Lehman’s serious complaints about the integrity of the union election.
As for the Teamsters, the bureaucracy is openly aligned with Trump, and union president Sean O’Brien will speak at the Republican National Convention this month, exposing the right-wing and fascist attitudes common to the entire union bureaucracy.
This crisis is creating favorable conditions for labor rebellion. Workers must oppose the union-government-management conspiracy at the port by asserting workers’ control over collective bargaining, based on red lines that workers themselves establish. Workers must organize into independent action committees to impose a strike by October 1 if a collective agreement is not reached that prevents layoffs and meets their demands.
Such a struggle requires workers to act completely independently of the two-party system and the union bureaucracy. Whatever happens in the coming months, the working class will be faced with the need to wage a determined struggle against the union apparatus and the corporate and political establishment it serves.
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