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Dockworkers strike suspended, tentative agreement includes 62% pay raise over 6 years (abcnews.go.com)

submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

34 comments fedilink hide all child comments

A historic United States port strike has been suspended and a tentative agreement was reached "on wages," according to the International Longshoremen’s Association and the U.S. Maritime Alliance.

"Effective immediately, all current job actions will cease and all work covered by the Master Contract will resume," the ILA and USMX said in a joint statement Thursday evening.

The tentative agreement would increase workers’ wages by 62% over the life of the 6-year contract, sources familiar confirm to ABC News.

This represents a significant increase from the shipping industry group’s offer of a 50% wage increase earlier this week. The union had been pushing for a 77% pay hike over six years.

The tentative agreement would bring the hourly wage for a top dockworker to $63 per hour at the end of the new contract, up from $39 per hour under the expired contract.

top 34 comments

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[–] [email protected] 74 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Congrats to the longshoremen!

[–] [email protected] 40 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Now do Healthcare workers and teachers!

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Healthcare workers need to unionize

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

Half the problem is how many are "critical workers" and can't outright strike. In my field, for instance, I'm union, but it wouldn't be very good to strike in a traditional sense. We're fire/ems, so the only people to really suffer from a strike would be the people who are calling 911 for help. So here we are, working 54 hours a week and making $42,000 a year.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

Many of them are.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Teachers have a union, but somehow it's ridiculously weak or just corrupted horribly to favor everyone except the teachers.

[+] [email protected] -26 points 2 months ago (5 children)

Congrats-ish. That's not exactly a huge pay rise.

[–] [email protected] 47 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

They asked for 77% pay raises over 6 years and negotiated for 62%. This is a decent deal. Any victory for labor is a victory for all our us. Sure there is still a lot of work to be done, but this is a win.

[+] [email protected] -14 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Hence the "ish." It's a victory. It could be a better one. That's a 15% difference from what they wanted.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Not necessarily. Prudent to start with an offer higher than your actual goal so you have room to bargain downward.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Absolutely. This is collective bargaining 101. Look at the historic UAW strike of 2023 and what they asked for at the start. Discounting that it was the first trilateral strike against the big three automakers union history, they asked for an historic amount of benefits and workplace changes.

-46% pay increase over contract duration

-Restoration of pension

-Retiree healthcare

-Healthcare benefits for all

-Cost of living adjustments

-End to the wage tiers system that divides the laborers into different "classes" of workers

-32-hour workweek with no loss in pay

If you don't go for audacious, you will get far less than you need.

They got:

-25% pay increase in wages over the 4.5 year contract, 11% at outset

-Cost of living adjustments

-$5k bonus

-Elimination of the tiered wage system (Fucking huge)

If they never went to bat for the audacious, they never would have gotten the tiered system removed. Now they have far more solidarity and collective bargaining power for the next negotiation. All because of audacious demands and striking unilaterally across the big three.

This is just one contract negotiation and strike. Much work to still be done.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

Adding to what everyone else said, this is still a tentative deal. This is not the final form of the contract they'll sign.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 months ago (1 children)

This is what, 8% annually or so? Seems petty substantial to me.

[–] [email protected] -5 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Pretty substantial compared to the average American raise or pretty substantial compared to what should be fair and livable?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago (2 children)

That would require more than just the pay rate to judge. It seems to be a decent bump up, but I was under the impression that some of the concern that led to the strike was how automation was going to affect their job. $63/hour isn't all that great if you have half the hours, or no job at all because they needed only half the workers.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago

If preserving jobs regardless of technology were a criterion, we'd still have farriers in every town. Things change. Good on them for getting a pay raise, though. It's hard and essential work.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 2 months ago

I was also under that impression.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

You need to know the base wage before saying that. If they are getting a fair and livable wage now, and this raise is twice what inflation is over time, then this is great. If they are below a fair and livable wage, then this might be enough to get them up, depending on how far below they are.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago

The base wages which I've already told to others? They are not getting a fair and livable wage.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

if you made $100k on the docks today, by 2030 you should make $162k. this is an excellent win for them.

[–] [email protected] -5 points 2 months ago (2 children)

That's a big fucking if considering dock workers can make a hell of a lot less than that. In fact, the top rate is only a little over $80,000 a year.

If you work a ton of overtime, you can earn over $100,000. The average pay is a bit over $50,000.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-much-do-dock-workers-make-longshoreman-salary/

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

OK.

point wasn't what you start with. point is what you end with.

don't like base pay? strike again.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

Yes. That's exactly what I hope they do in January.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Longshoreman overtime is ass-backwards though. They clock crazy high OT and do shit like sleep on the clock and they get any shifts outside normal business hours counted as OT. The average pay is well over $100k iirc

They're also super insular and basically the only way to get a job with them is to be a family member of someone who's retiring.

I like unions but the ILA is basically a front for the mob. Their leader literally got involved in a ton of RICO charges that didn't stick because a key witness mysteriously turned up dead in a trunk.

Also part of the reason they're so insistent on paper records and refusing automation is so they can traffick humans, illegal goods, and steal stuff.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Would you care to elaborate why you say that isn’t a huge pay raise? It seems quite significant to me.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Dock workers can make as little as $14 an hour. A 62% pay rise would bring it up to $22.68 an hour. Over 6 years. Sure, $40,000 a year is better than a lot of jobs. It's still atrociously low considering the amount of back-breaking labor that can be involved.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

They seem to be okay with the labor since they are also against automation.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

It's been a long time since unions have gotten a win like this. This represents a major wind change, hence why people are so stoked.

[–] [email protected] 58 points 2 months ago (1 children)

good for them!

now, let's all point and laugh at the schmucks that learned nothing from 2020 and stockpiled TP this week.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

now, let's all point and laugh at the schmucks that learned nothing from 2020 and stockpiled TP this week.

Yeah! By this point everyone should be ordering their TP in 48-roll boxes from WhoGivesACrap!

[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 months ago

Further proof that unions work and should be more widespread.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago

That's a much better outcome than I expected from this. Here's hoping the trend continues.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago

Fuck yeah a win for humanity.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

Defeat the fuckingcapitalists