Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg put pressure today on the shipping company consortium to put a decent offer on the table for the striking East Coast dock workers:
"What the union is demanding is wages that would help them participate in the enormous profits that the shipping companies have made, especially in recent years. If you start the clock in the middle of the last decade, over about an eight-year period, shipping profits went up 350%. The wages overall of workers in the country went up by about 42%. The wages of these workers only went up by about 15%. Their last contract reflected a tougher economic situation. They went certain years without any wage increases at all.
"So right now, they're negotiating for better wages and terms. Them and the ocean carriers and ports, in order to reach a new contract. that has resulted in this stoppage, and it's a big issue. This needs to be resolved. We've been in touch with the different parties, urging them to bridge differences. In particular, urging these ocean carriers which, again, have become extremely profitable in recent years, to put forward an offer that is enough to bring the union back to the table and get this done."
Buttigieg is echoing President Biden who noted the wildly excessive profits the shipping companies controlling the East Coast ports have made since the Covid pandemic. But dealing with corporate greed is only part of the situation. The delay in getting a deal done will not only eventually put a significant dent in the economic progress made under the Biden-Harris Administration, but could also hamper recovery efforts for Hurricane Helene victims, since needed goods and construction materials won't be able to move from the affected ports. So, the Administration needs to keep hammering that consortium to get back to the negotiating table and get a contract done now.
UPDATE: There's reporting that the strike has been suspended until January 15, 2025, after a tentative deal was made on wages to provide time for negotiations to continue on a new contract.
(Photo: striking dock workers at Port Tampa Bay / Chris Young, WMNF News)
