The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) is facing a critical challenge in its ongoing negotiations with ocean carriers and employers over the future of automation in the shipping industry.
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The focus of these discussions centres on the expansion of semi-automated rail-mounted gantry cranes (RMGs), a technology that the ILA argues could undermine jobs, national security, and the broader workforce.
While the ILA supports progress and innovation, the union is determined to prevent the introduction of technology that it believes could put workers’ livelihoods at risk.
"In the early 2000s, under a different ILA administration, the employers introduced semi-automated RMGs at a greenfield terminal on the East Coast. They sold the ILA a vision that this new terminal would create thousands of jobs. It sounded like an opportunity, but hindsight reveals a much different picture," Dennis A. Daggett is Executive Vice President, International Longshoremen’s Association; President of ILA Local 1804-1 and General Coordinator of the International Dockworkers Council said.
"What seemed like a win for one port turned out to be the project that is becoming the model for automation that could potentially chip away at many jobs at almost every other terminal along the East and Gulf Coasts.
"At that time, the New Technology clause in our Master Contract required employers to file a letter of intent 120 days before implementing new equipment.
"However, after that notice was filed, employers essentially had free rein to unilaterally introduce whatever they wanted, without protecting the job functions or the roles of the workforce. It was a loophole that came at a cost to ILA members and their families.
"By the 2012-2013 Master Contract negotiations, we had learned from these mistakes. Under new leadership, the ILA secured workforce protections and guarantees, ensuring that automation would no longer be implemented without consideration of its impact on jobs.
"This progress continued in 2018, when we negotiated a prohibition on full automation. These agreements set clear limits on how far technology could go in replacing human labor.
"Today, employers are pushing to expand RMGs, claiming they are only “semi-automated” and necessary for safety and productivity. But let’s break this down.
"The reality is that 95% of the work performed by RMGs is fully automated. From the moment a container is dropped off by a shuttle carrier, the RMG operates on its own lifting, stacking, and moving containers, including gantry and hoisting, without any human intervention.
"This includes the auto-stacking of containers in the container stack, which is also fully automated. Only in the last six feet of the container’s journey on the landside, when it is placed on a truck chassis, does an operator step in. But how long until employers automate those final six feet as well?
"This isn’t about safety or productivity—it’s about job elimination.
"The automation agenda isn’t just a threat to jobs—it’s a risk to our national security and economy.
"Imagine if a foreign adversary, like China, exploited these vulnerabilities and hacked our port systems. With ports increasingly dependent on automation and green energy technologies, an attack could cripple the U.S. economy overnight. This isn’t hypothetical—it’s a new form of warfare that we are not prepared to defend against.
Recent shutdowns at major ports due to technical glitches have highlighted how fragile these systems can be.
"To those who think the ILA is the one threatening to cripple the nation, let me ask you this: is it the 78-year-old labor leader fighting to protect his members who poses the real risk? Or is it the corporations and foreign-owned companies, making billions while systematically eliminating American jobs, that will bear the responsibility for crippling this country?"
This is a pivotal moment in our history. The decisions we make today will determine the future for generations to come. The ILA will continue to be at the forefront of this fight—not for ourselves, but for every worker and every community that depends on us.
"We call on all workers, communities, and policymakers to stand with us. Together, we can fight for a future where technology serves people, not profits. Because in the end, protecting jobs, national security, and the dignity of work isn’t just the ILA’s fight—it’s everyone’s fight" Daggett said.
President-elect Donald Trump has joined with the leadership of the International Longshoremen’s Association yesterday in support of the union’s fight against automation in U.S. ports. ■
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