As a looming strike of East Coast port workers spanning more than 30 major ports that process over half of U.S. container activity threatens to clog up the movement of goods into, out of, and throughout the United States, the matter of automation plays a key role in negotiations.
According to International Longshoreman’s Association Executive Vice President Dennis Daggett , “Automation, which I believe we are going to be battling for the rest of our existence, is a high-priority issue.”
In particular, Daggett pointed to the port in Mobile, Alabama, which he said is using automation that ILA members believe is in violation of their contract. That automation is a gate system that processes trucks entering and exiting the APM Terminals without the use of ILA labor.
A single gate system may seem like a small issue — perhaps one worth ceding to the union by agreeing to use workers for increasingly antiquated tasks. But the wages paid to “protect” some port workers’ jobs from automation are a drop in the bucket compared to the widespread gains that would be lost by banning automation.