Harold Daggett, the union boss who shut down 14 US shipping ports, went on a wild rant about technology just weeks before dockworkers went on strike Tuesday – and even took aim at E-ZPass.
The head of the International Longshoreman’s Association decried the loss of toll booth workers because the shift to E-ZPass allows motorists to zip through “like it’s nothing and then get billed in the mail,” according to an interview last month.
“All those union jobs are gone,” he said in the Q&A posted to ILA’s YouTube channel on Sept. 5.
The foul-mouthed boss also fumed over the proliferation of self-checkout kiosks in retail stores.
“Someone needs to go to Congress and say, ‘Whoa, time out,’ this world is going too fast for us. Machines have got to stop,” he said during the 17-minute video.
Daggett, who has led the union since 2011 and rakes in nearly $1 million in salary, has demanded a nearly 80% pay increase for ILA’s 45,000 workers from Maine to Texas and an end to automation projects by port operators.
There are just three automated ports in the US, including one in Los Angeles, where Daggett said 800 longshoremen lost their jobs due to the upgrades.
US container ports are woefully inefficient compared to those in Asia and Europe, which are quickly embracing automation, according to a World Bank report released in June.
Out of 405 busy ports around the world, 24 of the US ports are among the least efficient, with more than half of them ranked 200 or higher, the 2023 Container Port Performance Index found.
“We are behind the times and need to catch up,” shipping consultant Jon Monroe told the Post. “The rest of the world is automating.”
“I frankly do not understand a union that stubbornly refuses to embrace technology that others around the world are adopting,” added Lars Jensen, chief executive of consultancy Vespucci Maritime.
Automating the ports will ultimately make longshoremen’s jobs safer, shipping experts contend.
Daggett argues that his members deserve higher pay, in part, because their jobs are so dangerous.
Over the past three years 17 ILA members lost their lives on the job, Daggett said, including a young man in Houston who was killed when a “big roll of paper rolled off” and landed on him.
Daggett predicted the strike will take a stiff toll that will “cripple” port operators.
“In the first week it will be all over the news, boom boom,” he said in the video. “The second week guys who sell cars can’t sell cars because they aren’t coming off of the ships and the third week, malls are shutting down,” because they can’t get goods from China.”
The work stoppage could raise retail prices, especially grocery items, within a week, experts predicted.
