A Tale Of Two Unions

A bellicose longshoreman union president threatens to "crush" the nation's economy, while Starbucks threatens and stymies baristas seeking a union contract. Two unions. Two strategies.

ILA President Harold Daggett

*Update: The International Longshoremen’s Association’s strike was short-lived, The parties announced a tentative agreement on wages and an extension of the master contract on Thursday afternoon.

The National Board of Labor Relations (NLRB) this week ruled that former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz threatened a Starbucks worker by telling her, “If you are not happy at Starbucks, you can go work for another company.”

Meanwhile, the in-your-face president of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA), warned Monday that an ILA walkout which began in major ports in the East and Gulf coast on Monday could “crush” the economy. He said shipping companies today reap billions in profits and must pay workers salaries that reflect this reality.

Wearing designer glasses and a gold chain, ILA President Harold Daggett promised in a thick Queens, NY, accent: “I’ll cripple you. I will cripple you, and you have no idea what that means. Nobody does.”

He made a choking gesture with his hands to drive home the point.

The ILA represents some 85,000 maritime workers at 36 ports. Daggett says that everything, from cars to bananas, comes into the United States via shipping containers. The longer the walkout continues, says Daggett, the more pain American consumers will feel.

The logo on Daggett’s shirt is apt: “A Union To Be Reckoned With.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday deployed the National Guard to ports throughout Florida to “to maintain order and, if possible, resume operations which would otherwise be shut down during this interruption.”

President Joe Biden said he would not use federal power under the Taft Hartley act to temporarily end the strike, but expressed concern that it is creating a “man-made disaster.” He urged the shippers and ILA to quickly reach a contract.

Daggett implied that if workers were ordered back to work without a contract, very little work would get done and it would cost shippers.

Clearly, the ILA is different from Workers United, the labor union that represents some 10,000 Starbucks workers at more than 400 Starbucks stores around the nation.

Starbucks workers have been waiting for a contract since the first store successfully unionized in December 2021. Meanwhile, Starbucks is automating its machines to replace workers and closing stores. Thousands of unfair labor practice charges have been filed against Starbucks management for a constellation of violations of the National Labor Relations Act but they seem to have made little difference.