Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday backed the nation’s striking longshoremen, calling the work stoppage that closed ports from Maine to Texas a fight for “fairness.”
“Foreign-owned freight forwarding companies have posted record profits and executive pay has increased,” the Democratic presidential candidate said in a statement. “The Longshoremen, who play a critical role in transporting essential goods across America, deserve their fair share of these record profits.”
Tens of thousands of workers left their jobs Tuesday morning due to a contract dispute with port employers. Their union, the International Longshoremen’s Association, is calling for significant wage increases and protections from automation in a new six-year deal. A prolonged strike could put pressure on the economy just as the November election approaches, putting the Harris administration and President Joe Biden in a difficult position.
But so far the White House has resisted calls to intervene in the dispute and force employees back to work in the name of national security. Biden has said he believes in the collective bargaining process and that the two sides should resolve their differences at the negotiating table.
On Wednesday, Harris used the strike as an opportunity to emphasize how different she is from her Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump, who was hostile to unions during his time in the White House.
“Donald Trump … wants to take us back to a time before workers had the freedom to organize,” she said. “As president, he blocked overtime benefits for millions of workers and appointed union busters to the NLRB [National Labor Relations Board] – and recently he said striking workers should be fired.”
The latter was a reference to a recent conversation Trump had on X, formerly Twitter, with his supporter Elon Musk, the owner of the social media platform. The former president praised Musk as the kind of man who would fire strikers, which is generally illegal. (The two men laughed.)
The Longshoremen, who play a crucial role in transporting essential goods across America, deserve their fair share of these record profits.Vice President Kamala Harris
Harris is also correct when he says that as president, Trump appointed anti-union officials to the NLRB, who made it harder for workers to organize.
He also watered down a reform by his predecessor, Barack Obama, that would have given millions fewer workers protections against overtime if they work more than 40 hours a week. (If Trump wins in November, he could once again undermine progressive overtime reform, this time enacted by Biden.)
Most major labor unions have endorsed the Harris campaign, with the exception of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which declined to endorse either candidate. Multiple labor historians recently told HuffPost that they view Biden’s administration as the most pro-union government since at least Franklin D. Roosevelt’s, and that Harris could build on Biden’s legacy if she were to defeat Trump.
