Yes Doris, a salary of $901,000 per year is a bit above the national average.
[Washington Examiner] Harold Daggett, the 78-year-old chief of the International Longshoremen’s Association, isn’t pulling any punches. It’s not his style.
"People are going to sit up and realize how important longshoremen jobs are," Daggett said Tuesday. "They won’t be able to sell cars. They won’t be able to stock malls. They won’t be able to do anything in this country without my f***ing people. And it’s about time they start realizing it."
The white-haired, acerbic, profane-laden leader is in his fourth term as union president. He is leading thousands of men and women into the organization’s most militant stance yet against port operators following decades of fierce contract negotiations with ocean carriers.
Daggett, who often shows up to sit-down interviews in muscle shirts, gold chains, and large medallions, is throwing himself into the fight of his life — to win a historic pay raise and stop automation in its tracks.
On Tuesday, he was at the Port Authority in Elizabeth, New Jersey, wearing a blue sweatshirt and a gray baseball hat. He was also carrying a bullhorn.
"We are prepared to fight as long as necessary, to stay out on strike for whatever period of time it takes, to get the wages and protections against automation our ILA members deserve," his raspy voice rang out. It was the ILA’s first coastwide strike in almost five decades.
The existing contract between the union and the port operators group, the United States Maritime Alliance, which covers roughly 45,000 longshoremen, expired on Monday. Negotiations have stalled since June, when, citing the use of labor-saving technology at the port in Alabama, the ILA broke off talks.
Daggett is gunning for a 77% pay increase over six years. That would boost the base hourly rate for dockworkers to $69 from $39. Port employers and ocean shipping companies initially offered nearly 40%. Under pressure from the White House on Monday, they increased their offer to 50%.
Daggett said no deal and vowed the strike would continue until employers meet his demands. 
|
