How much do dockworkers make? Longshoreman's union scores pay boost for members under tentative deal
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The International Longshoreman's Association (ILA) strike that halted trade at East and Gulf Coast ports in the U.S. this week has been put on hold after the union agreed to a 62% raise for the 45,000 dockworkers under its tentative agreement with the U.S. Maritime Alliance (USMX), which represents the port employers.
Under the previous contract that expired on Monday, ILA dockworkers' starting wage was at $20 per hour and topped out at $39 per hour (or more than $81,000 annually) for employees with six or more years of service, but overtime and royalty pay earned by workers push their typical take-home pay much higher.
Trucks line up outside of the Bayport Container Terminal at the port of Houston in Seabrook, Texas, US, on Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. US dockworkers agreed to end a three-day strike that had paralyzed trade on the US East and Gulf coasts and threatened to (Photographer: Mark Felix/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)
According to internal USMX documents viewed by FOX Business, the average full-time ILA dockworker in New York/New Jersey under the previous contract made $350,000 per year, and in Norfolk, Virginia, they made an average of $200,000.
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ILA members in Savannah, Georgia, averaged $180,000, while those in Houston, Texas, and Charleston, South Carolina, made an average of $170,000, respectively.
Harold J. Daggett, president of the International Longshoremen's Association speaks as dockworkers at the Maher Terminals in Port Newark are on strike on October 1, 2024 in New Jersey. (BRYAN R. SMITH/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)
ILA President Harold Daggett, who is the union's lead negotiator for the new contract, made more than $900,000 last year between his combined $728,000 salary from the ILA and another $173,000 from ILA Local 1804-1 in North Bergen, New Jersey, according to Department of Labor filings.
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The strike began Tuesday after the ILA rejected USMX's earlier offer of a 50% pay raise over the life of the next six-year contract, but the work stoppage came to an end late Thursday after the two sides reached the tentative agreement for a 62% pay boost.
Dockworkers strike at the Bayport Container Terminal in Seabrook, Texas, on October 1, 2024. Officials at 14 ports along the US East and Gulf Coasts were making last-minute preparations on September 30 for a likely labor strike that could drag on the (MARK FELIX/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Patrick Anderson, CEO and principal of Anderson Economic Group, which estimates the economic impact of strikes, told FOX Business the ILA's deal paid off for the union members.
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"The short ILA strike…will surely be ranked as one of the most lucrative 3 days in labor-management history," Anderson said. "The ILA workers have apparently gained 60% wage increases after giving up 3 days of work in a strike that inflicted no serious damage on the US economy."