Published
November 18, 2025
In early November, Harold Daggett, President of the International Longshoreman’s Association (ILA) issued a resounding call for dockworkers to coordinate strikes at ports all over the globe. At the “People Over Profits: Anti-Automation Conference” in Lisbon, Portugal, Daggett called for a “Global Maritime Alliance” that would target and strike companies that introduced or expanded automation at waterfront facilities at any port around the world. In other words, if ports try to improve their productivity and efficiency to benefit the economy, Daggett wants a global maritime strike that could paralyze the world economy.
Coming from Daggett, whose union represents dock workers on the East Coast and the Gulf, this threat shouldn’t be ignored. After all, in October 2024, Daggett threatened to shut down the U.S. economy during a ports dispute, saying: “First week, be all over the news every night. Boom, boom. Second week, guys who sell cars can’t sell cars because the cars ain’t coming in off the ships. They get laid off. Third week, malls start closing down. They can’t get the goods from China. They can’t sell clothes. They can’t do this. Everything in the United States comes on a ship. They go out of business. Construction workers get laid off because the materials aren’t coming in, the steel’s not coming in, the lumber’s not coming in. They lose their job.”
Should Daggett succeed in his goal of forming a global cartel to paralyze the world economy, the impacts on our economy could be devastating. For example, a one-week strike, just at ports served by the ILA, could cost the U.S. economy nearly $4 billion by some estimates. Coordinated strikes at ports around the world would cause exponentially more harm.
Certain unions, including the ILA, have been sounding more supportive of Republicans of late. But it’s worth noting that while the ILA gave $5,000 to the GOP in 2024, they gave $115,000 to Democrats and declined to endorse the President. Should Daggett succeed in dragging down the global economy, there would be even less for the administration to thank him for.
About the author
Glenn Spencer
Spencer oversees the Chamber’s work on immigration, retirement security, traditional labor relations, human trafficking, wage hour and worker safety issues, EEOC matters, and state labor and employment law.
