At 12:01 AM Tuesday, October 1, the International Longshoreman’s Association (ILA) called its members out on strike at 36 ports for the first time since 1977. The ILA is up against a coalition of big shippers and port operators called the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX). There is little doubt that even a short strike will snarl supply chains and disrupt those parts of the economy, like sectors of the auto industry, that depend on imports of auto parts produced overseas. The union is holding out for wage increases of $5 per hour for each year of a six-year contract. The longshore bosses are offering about half of that. An even bigger issue is the bosses’ drive to automate out of existence as many jobs as possible.
ILA leaders organized a rally in Elizabeth, NJ, on the first day of the strike. Joining them were leaders of the West Coast-based International Longshoremen and Warehousemen’s Union and a representative of the International Dockworkers Council, which brings together longshore unions from around the globe. These allies of the ILA all pledged support to the strikers, but what actions they will take to pressure the global shipping interests grouped into USMX has yet to be seen. Their actions will be significant, because while the longshore strike will undoubtedly cut into the profits of the container shipping lines, the dominant companies, like Maersk, for example, generate profits globally, not just from the U.S. ports now shut down by the strike.
USMX, the Chamber of Commerce, and the National Association of Manufacturers complain that the ILA strike, by disrupting supply chains, will cause inflation. However, statistics collected by the Bureau of Economic Analysis show that corporate profits surged thanks to price gouging during the supply chain disruptions associated with the Covid-19 pandemic. This surge in corporate profits accounts for 53% of the price increases that have devastated the U.S. working class’s standard of living in the past three years.
Among the companies most guilty of taking advantage of disruptions in supply chains during COVID-19 to boost profits are the big shippers themselves. Maersk, for example, tripled its annual earnings in 2021 over the results in 2019, from $5.7 billion dollars to $18 billion. Its rate of profit on invested capital jumped to 30% in 2021 from 9% in 2019. ILA workers are right in saying their bosses can afford the wage increases they are demanding. And none of us should be taken in by bogus public relations propaganda, which aims to shift the blame for inflation away from price-gouging corporations onto workers fighting back against corporate greed.
