This week, nearly 50,000 longshoremen went on strike at ports from Maine to Texas. But in a strange quirk resulting from decades of huge concessions to unions, only 25,000 jobs at the ports are affected.
There is a huge gap between the number of people showing up to work and the total membership of the influential International Longshoremen's Association, which late Thursday agreed to a 62% wage increase over the next six years.
That's because half of the dockworkers at Eastern and Gulf ports are allowed to stay home to collect “container fees” negotiated decades ago to protect them from job losses due to innovation. According to the Wall Street Journal.
The repercussions of a no-show job at a port controlled by high-paid and foul-mouthed ILA president Harold Daggett were part of an explosive case. 2019-2020 Waterfront Committee Report Cited by the journal's editorial board on Friday.
The report shows how the ILA's iron grip helps some workers by denying employment to residents near ports at the expense of countless other blue-collar applicants. The revelations reignited concerns about mob control over U.S. shipping, made famous by the classic movie “On the Road.” Waterfront. ”
“More than 60 years of absolute control by the International Longshoremen's Association, AFL-CIO (ILA), over employment in ports has not only resulted in a lack of diversity and inclusion in waterfront employment, but also in criminal and It also perpetuated corruption.” Waterfront Commission report revealed.
It also claimed that about 600 union members received exorbitant salaries worth more than $147 million that were not required by the industry's collective bargaining agreement and were not required to work many hours at the port.
“People with ties to union leaders and organized crime figures are given high salaries and special compensation for shows and no-works,” said Walter Arsenault, executive director of the Waterfront Commission at the time. This was stated in the port report.
ILA did not respond to requests for comment.
Daggett, who threatened to “paralyze” opponents during strikes, became ILA president in 2011. He raked in $728,000 in compensation from the union last year and another $173,000 as honorary president of the local union chapter. According to documents submitted by the Ministry of Labor..
According to Zillow and NJ Property Records, he lives in a 7,316-square-foot home on 10 acres in New Jersey, with a luxury Bentley parked in front of it and a 76-foot house previously called Obsession. He reportedly owned a yacht.
His two sons are also union bigwigs and reportedly make a lot of money.
Dennis Daggett is the executive vice president of ILA and had income of $250,156 for the fiscal year ending December 2022. According to ProPublica.
Atlantic Coast ILA vice president John Daggett earned $264,228 during the same period.
According to the Waterfront Commission's report, unions continued to employ discriminatory employment practices, even though white male employees and their relatives earned higher wages.
The commission said it had faced “strong opposition” in its efforts to require unions to enforce fair employment practices.
“After six years and the addition of approximately 1,300 workers, there has been little progress in diversifying the registered deep-sea longshore workers in each ILA local population,” Arsenault wrote.
When the union hired employees from diverse backgrounds, it divided the workforce by local population.
According to the report, the majority of new black longshore workers were assigned to ILA, a predominantly black ILA local in Newark, New Jersey, but coveted positions in ILA Local 1 were primarily It was said to have been given to a white man.
The demographics of registered union mechanics and mechanics were even less diverse. According to the 2019-2020 report, only one of the 1,024 registered coastal maintenance workers across the ports was a woman.
The watchdog also accused the union of having ties to organized crime figures.
According to the report, the commission disapproved 18% of ILA longshore worker referrals due to links to organized crime.
Daggett himself has battled allegations of mob ties.
In 2005, the Department of Justice accused Daggett of being an “associate” with the Genovese crime family, one of the “Five Families” of the U.S. Mafia.
Mr. Daggett took the witness stand that year after federal prosecutors indicted him on racketeering charges.
He described himself as a mob target – although members of the Turncoat Mafia testified that Daggett was under mob control. The New York Times reported.
During the trial, one of Daggett's co-defendants, Lawrence Rich, an alleged mob kingpin, disappeared. His body was found weeks later decomposing in the trunk of a car outside a New Jersey diner.
Rich's death remained unsolved, but there was speculation that he was murdered because he refused to admit guilt to avoid publicity in his trial.
Mr. Daggett was acquitted on two charges.
Mr. Daggett has long been a critic of the commission, calling its accusations of mob ties “sheer bullshit” and “a dark, ugly attack on Italian Americans.”
“It is an utter tragedy that the Waterfront Commission freely enjoys and targets Italian Americans as part of a historic anti-worker movement,” Daggett said in 2022. For decades, the Waterfront Commission has maintained that only people with so-called “mob ties” are given good jobs. ”
