US dockworkers threaten to strike against automation, creating economic uncertainty Vowing to stop machines from taking their jobs, 45,000 U.S. longshoremen are threatening to go on a strike that would shut down ports on the East and Gulf coasts and could damage the American economy just as President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House.
The sticking point is a familiar one at America’s ports: machines replacing human labor, specifically semi-automated cranes operated by software or employees working remotely to guide containers onto trucks or trains.
The union and its president, Harold Daggett, are dead set against allowing additional automation at East and Gulf coast ports.
“This isn’t about meeting operational needs,’’ Daggett's son Dennis Daggett, the union’s executive vice president, wrote last month.
In October, they suspended the strike until Jan. 15 after reaching a tentative agreement with ports and shipping companies for a 62% pay raise over six years.
