Daggett elected ILA president
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Harold J. Daggett was unanimously elected as the ninth president of the International Longshoremen’s Association at the union’s quadrennial convention in Hollywood, Fla., on Thursday.
In a fiery acceptance speech to delegates, Daggett vowed “to address change head on.” He indicated he would challenge efforts at further automating terminals that would eliminate ILA jobs, and industry changes such as chassis pools if they mean ILA workers will lose work.
“We are against automation in this United States on the East Coast and the West Coast,” he said. Automation “takes away your jobs and takes away money from your family. I’m not going to let that happen. I’m going to fight it.”
Referring to the automated terminal that was built by APM Terminals in Virginia, Daggett said, “If you were to ask Hampton Roads today if they had a vote on it, they would vote no.”
Daggett also expressed concern about the prevalence of overweight containers, both for safety reasons and because he believes the union is being shortchanged on container royalties, which are based on container weights.
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He linked that issue to concerns about carriers forming chassis pools if they are managed by companies that may not have to employ ILA labor. Daggett said he can insist that overweight containers not be allowed to leave marine terminals, but be stripped and reloaded by ILA workers.
Referencing the expansion in the Panama Canal and the expectation that there will be an increase in transshipment, Daggett said he plans to work to organize longshoremen working at terminals in Panama and at Freeport in the Bahamas.
He also said he wanted to organize workers “up and down the logistics chain” in cooperation with other labor unions.
Another theme Daggett sounded repeatedly in his speech was a call for unity, both among the ILA membership and among all unions that represent transportation workers.
He said he planned to visit ILA locals from Maine to Houston.
“We got to get our house of ILA labor together so we speak with one voice,” he told delegates. He told officers of the union that he expected them to work harder at resolving labor disputes on a local level, and said they would have to play a more active role in areas such as safety.
He told members that “whatever affects one port affects not only that port, but ports directly to the right and to the left of them and all ports and our jobs.”
Daggett said he aims to keep a tight control on the union, that no ILA local would have the right to modify any agreement “without the approval of the executive council and the president of the ILA and that’s me. We do not intend to allow management to divide and conquer us.”
He said ILA locals in Panama need to come under the union’s master contract, saying they have different contracts and compete with each other.
Daggett said he wanted to work closely with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union that represents dockworkers on the West Coast and the International Transportation Workers Federation, even inviting ILWU President Robert McEllrath to sit in on negotiations as the ILA bargains for a new contract for the one that expires on Sept. 30, 2012.
Daggett also complained bitterly about the lack of assistance he received from the United State Maritime Alliance, the group that represents ILA employers, when Del Monte Fresh Produce moved its operations from an ILA terminal to a non-ILA employer at Gloucester Terminal in Gloucester City, N.J. The move across the river from Philadelphia resulted in the loss of 200 ILA jobs.
“Never, never let what happened in Philadelphia happen again,” he said. ' Chris Dupin