The dockworkers on the East Coast of the United States and in the Gulf of Mexico have won. Over six years, they will receive a 62% pay rise, and will ultimately be paid $63 an hour, compared with the current $39. This is more than seven times the US federal minimum hourly wage of $7.25.
In the midst of an election campaign, Joe Biden, who rightly proclaims himself to be the most “pro-union” president in US history, welcomed the decision. “Collective bargaining works, and it is critical to building a stronger economy from the middle out and the bottom up,” he said.
During his time in office, the Democratic president has been unable to raise the federal minimum wage, unchanged since 2009, even when the Democrats controlled both houses of Congress in 2020. The increase was secured under George W. Bush, and Barack Obama did nothing to change it. Only the law of the market has allowed wages to rise.
Institutionalized overtime
Dockers’ wages are high. Until now, the theoretical maximum hourly wage was $39, or $81,000 a year. But overtime is institutionalized. A New York state survey revealed that 55% of dockworkers in the Port of New York earned more than $150,000 in 2019-2020, and a third more than $200,000 a year. The increase granted, on Thursday, should cause a proportional surge in compensation. According to employers, the average real salary of a full-time dockworker on the Pacific Coast is currently $233,000.
The employers’ offer was less than the 77% increase demanded by the dockers. The workers’ power was considerable, less than a month before the presidential election. With automation, labor costs have become very low in relation to port turnover. Dockworkers negotiated in particular with the world’s freight giants (Denmark’s Maersk, Germany’s Hapag-Lloyd and France’s CMA-CGM). At a time of heightened nationalism in the US, the unions could count on the goodwill of the political authorities when dealing with non-American companies.
“I want to thank the union workers, the carriers and the port operators for acting patriotically to reopen our ports and ensure the availability of critical supplies for Hurricane Helene recovery and rebuilding,” Biden said. Donald Trump said this week that the strike “never would have happened” if he had been in the White House.
Huge profits during Covid
The wage agreement that expired on October 1, triggering a strike in 14 East Coast ports, from Boston to Houston, via New York and Miami, has been extended until January.
The huge profits recorded during the pandemic by shipowners, which exceeded $200 billion, were the reason for the demands. These companies “got real rich during Covid when everybody stayed home while my people went to work every single day and some of them died on the job,” accused dockers’ union boss Harold Daggett, as the strike began after midnight on Tuesday. “We’re here 135 years and brought them to where they are today, and they don’t want to share.”
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