On Tuesday, about 45,000 dock workers will walk off the job in a massive strike that will shutter dozens of ports along the East and Gulf Coasts, upending the economy just weeks before a tight presidential election.
President Joe Biden could stop the strike, but he says he won’t.
Contract negotiations between the International Longshoremen’s Association and port ownership broke down over the summer, and the two sides remain in a stalemate over both wages and automating port operations.
A strike of this size would cause wide-ranging supply chain and could pose a national security threat. As such, Biden has the authority under the Taft-Hartley Act to force union workers to stay on the job for another 80-days. But, White House officials have made it clear that Biden has no intention of getting involved. As of Thursday, five days before a strike would begin, the Biden administration was still simply encouraging both sides to get back to the negotiating table and figure something out.
“We’ve never invoked Taft-Hartley to break a strike and are not considering doing so now,” a White House spokesman told CBS. “We support collective bargaining. We believe it’s the best way for both American workers and employers to come to a fair agreement — one that benefits the workers in a way that reflects the success of the companies.”
The White House added that senior officials from the White House and the Departments of Labor and Transportation are in touch with both sides, and delivering the message to them directly about “being at the table and negotiating in good faith fairly and quickly.”
It’s unclear why Biden won’t intervene, though some have speculated that the president is unwilling to go out of his way to help Vice President Kamala Harris after Democrats ousted him from his re-election campaign over the summer. A dockworker strike could impact consumers well into the holiday season and hurt Americans as they struggle with rising inflation.
This is the last thing Harris needs right now. She has faced an uphill battle to win over voters with her economic message, and she has struggled to say how she would lower prices even as inflation has become one of voters’ top concerns. About 76% of voters say inflation is a major factor in their choice for president, an August CBS poll showed. Meanwhile, a majority of voters favor former president Donald Trump on the economy, a Fox News poll found.
Others have wondered whether Biden is courting the dock worker union at a time when the union vote is not coming easily to Democrats. Harris is the first Democratic presidential candidate to not get the Teamsters’ endorsement in nearly 30 years. Nearly 60% of the union’s 1.3 million members support Trump, internal polling found.
The International Longshoremen’s Association’s is a major Democratic donor, having given more than $8 million to Democrat candidates and causes. Union president Harold Daggett has himself donated to Democrats and endorsed Biden for president, but has lashed out at the president amid the current dispute.
Biden faced backlash in 2022 for signing legislation that imposed a contract on 115,000 freight rail workers after three years of failed negotiations.
“He turned his back on us,” one union member, a Virginia roadway mechanic said.
At the time, Biden said he was “reluctant” to override union members who wanted a different deal, but the economic impact of the railway strike would have “hurt millions of other working people and families.”
During his campaign, Biden promised to be “the most pro-union president you’ve ever seen.”
As the countdown to the strike continues, Republicans are raising the alarm, despite the fact that the strike would likely hurt Harris more than Trump.
Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) warned that a strike would be an “economic disaster” and accused the Biden administration of playing politics.
“Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have the tools to avert a strike and avoid economic disaster. They have shown no leadership to bring the parties together to resolve this dispute,” Cassidy said in a statement to The Daily Wire.
“It is clear the Biden-Harris administration is more interested in appeasing their union political allies than protecting American jobs. Workers and families continue to pay the price for the Biden-Harris political agenda,” Cassidy said.
Last week, a group of House Republicans on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee wrote to President Biden urging his administration to do everything in its power to prevent a strike that could lead to “dire impacts to our supply chains, our economy, and the American consumer.”
If the dock workers go on strike Tuesday morning, it could immediately become a political issue: Tuesday evening is the vice presidential debate.
