For the first time in nearly 50 years, dockworkers at ports along the East and Gulf coasts have gone on strike.
Members of the International Longshoremen’s Association walked off the job at 12:01 a.m. Oct. 1 — the minute their six-year labor contracts expired — with three local Charleston union affiliates picketing outside S.C. State Ports Authority terminals for better wages, job security and “respect.”
Nearly 20 people stood along Morrison Drive in Charleston, across from the SPA’s Columbus Street Terminal, holding high signs that read “No work without a fair contract” and “Automation hurts families: ILA stands for job protection.”
Randy Campbell, a union vice president, said that members of his local ILA 1771, and two others, 1422 and 1422A, will remain outside of the Wando Welch, North Charleston and Columbus Street terminals until negotiations are done.
This morning, at 12:01 a.m., 45,000 union dockworkers represented by the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) at major ports along the East and Gulf coasts went on strike.
— SC Chamber of Commerce (@scchamber) October 1, 2024
Here’s what you need to know: https://t.co/HPCE6q1m8v pic.twitter.com/7eBJ51cow4