At the start of the strike, a photo of the ILA's Harold Daggett with Trump circulated

Images of the president of the International Longshoremen’s Association meeting with former President Donald Trump circulated on social media as the union went on strike on Tuesday.

The images come from a July post on the union’s website in which union president Harold Daggett urged members to “pray” for the former president after the Pennsylvania assassination.

In the post, Daggett recalled a meeting with Trump in 2023 in which the former president appeared to express support for longshoremen.

“We had a wonderful, productive 90-minute meeting in which I expressed to President Trump the threat posed by automation to the American workforce,” Daggett said. “President Trump promised to support the ILA in its opposition to automated terminals in the US. Mr. Trump also listened to my concerns about federal “right to work” laws that undermine unions and their ability to represent and fight for their members.”

The strike begins on the same day as the vice presidential debate and days after Trump admitted not being paid overtime at a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania.

“I know a lot about overtime” the Republican candidate said Sunday. “I hated working overtime. I hated it. I would bring in other people, I shouldn’t say this, but I would bring in other people. I wouldn’t pay.”

The Trump administration fought unions while in office

By 2016, progress on many workers’ rights issues had stalled, and Trump capitalized on that frustration, Celine McNicholas, policy director at the nonpartisan research organization Economic Policy Institute Action, previously told USA TODAY.

“He may have been the first Republican in a long time to actually give a voice to this outrage,” she said. “But I think that’s where it ends.”

She said he has proposed cuts to worker protections, and the Economic Policy Institute called his administration’s actions to roll back worker protections “unprecedented.”

“With the incredible flurry of activity that came out of the Trump administration, I think the chaos actually served to obscure their real progress on some of these anti-worker, anti-fair economic policies that they had actually consistently pushed forward,” said McNicholas.

Despite the administration’s anti-union reputation, the national Teamsters union withheld its support of either Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris, although a number of swing-state locals independently supported the Democratic candidate.

The ILA has not announced support for the 2024 presidential election, but has campaigned for then-candidate Joe Biden in 2020.

What does the ILA want?

According to CNBC, the ILA is seeking a 61.5% salary increase over six years.

There are also concerns about automation. In June, talks with port operator USMX broke down over an automation dispute. In a press release at the time, the ILA said: “ILA President (Harold) Daggett has made it clear that the union will take a strong stance against any technology that endangers ILA jobs.”

On Monday, USMX said in a statement that it had offered to increase wages by nearly 50%, triple employer contributions to employee retirement plans, improve health care and maintain its current language regarding automation and semi-automation.”

At the start of the strike, a photo of the ILA’s Harold Daggett with Trump circulated

ByJasper

The Trump administration fought unions while in office

What does the ILA want?

By Jasper

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