Posts tagged supply chains
Union Workers Turn on Trump Tariffs: ‘Direct Attack on the Working Class’
April 29, 2025 // While the ILWU said that decades of free trade agreements had "negatively impacted American workers," it criticized Trump's approach to addressing this as "haphazard and destructive," while warning that the costs of food, energy and household goods would rise as a result. Similar warnings have been issued by associations representing the retail and home construction sectors, while the United Auto Workers union (UAW)—which had previously voice its support for "aggressive tariff action to protect American manufacturing jobs"—has recently offered a more critical view on Trump's import duties.
Steelworkers Union Applauds as Biden Blocks Sale of US Steel to Japanese Giant
January 4, 2025 // The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, a federal committee that has the power to review certain transactions involving foreign investment in the United States to evaluate a deal's impact on national security, decided to forgo making a formal recommendation about whether the deal should be allowed to proceed last week. The proposal also became ensnared in election year politics, with both presidential candidates saying that U.S. Steel should remain a domestically-owned firm. Rust Belt lawmakers in both parties, including Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) and Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio)—both of whom lost re-election in November—and Vice President-elect JD Vance, an Ohio Republican, expressed opposition to the deal.
Labor strikes shut down operations at Canada’s container ports from East to West Coast, with U.S. trade left in limbo
November 5, 2024 // Ports of Vancouver and Prince Rupert are at a standstill after ILWU Local 514 walked off the job in a strike. The labor action comes on the heels of a strike at the Port of Montreal. In July 2023, 13-day strikes at these two West Coast ports impacted the delivery of U.S.-bound goods for months, from apparel to auto parts and key industrial chemicals.
Op-Ed: Biden’s Longshoreman Strike
October 3, 2024 // American ports are less efficient than most in the world owing to union work rules and restrictions on automation.
Biden Backs ILA Strikers Warning Shippers on Price Spikes
October 2, 2024 // “Now is not the time for ocean carriers to refuse to negotiate a fair wage for these essential workers while raking in record profits,” Biden said in a statement from the White House. “My administration will be monitoring any price gouging activity that benefits foreign ocean carriers, including those on the USMX board.”
Textron Aviation workers go on strike after rejecting company’s offer
September 24, 2024 // If the strikes continue over a month, issues could form in the supply chains. Other workers who talked to KSN on Monday after the strike began say the negotiations were helpful but did not go far enough. “The negotiations got pretty far, said Troy Greene, who is also a shop steward. “There were some things in the deal that were pretty good. But we decided to hold out and get what we think we deserve.”
Commentary: Labor strikes add to Harris union headache after Teamsters snub
September 23, 2024 // The announcement laid bare what could be a major liability for Harris ahead of the election. She is supported by most labor leaders, but rank-and-file members could deny her the presidency if they show up instead for Trump. But Harris also has a second emerging labor headache: Several unions are considering strikes, threatening to upend supply chains weeks out from the November election. Last Friday, more than 30,000 Boeing workers walked off the job, and dockworkers at ports along the Gulf and East coasts are threatening their own strike next month. United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain similarly announced on Tuesday his organization will hold strike authorization votes against auto manufacturer Stellantis.
Labor unions are making unprecedented calls for a ceasefire in Gaza
January 24, 2024 // However, leadership of some large unions like the AFL-CIO and SAG-AFTRA have remained silent, seeing the issue as beyond their purview, risky to support, or too split among their members. Others have released statements in support of Israel, such as the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) president Randi Weingarten. But a number of AFT locals and other teachers’ unions have supported ceasefire resolutions themselves, revealing a schism between leadership and rank-and-file members. While there has been considerable support for the ceasefire resolutions, union members involved in organizing for Palestine say that they must go further to support efforts like Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) and not be complicit in the abuses against Palestinians by Israel, supported by U.S. tax dollars. “Just the ceasefire declaration, if there’s nothing more, if it doesn’t have any teeth, is not enough,” Saba said. Unions have a long history of standing for progressive causes internationally, from “opposing fascism in WWII to mobilizing against apartheid South Africa and the CONTRA war,” cited UAW Region 9A Director Brandon Mancilla in a UAW press release. Over the decades, labor has stood up against World War I, the Vietnam War, and the Iraq War.
Labor unions are still giving Democrats climate headaches
December 6, 2023 // The United Steelworkers, whose members operate oil refineries around the state, has endorsed a 12-year transition roadmap developed by economists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, which proposes California spend $470 million annually to support workers laid off from fossil fuel jobs. In October, USW joined a new labor coalition, including chapters from United Auto Workers, Service Employees International Union and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, that released policy priorities including wage replacement, healthcare coverage, retraining and relocation support for displaced workers.
Why Can’t U.S. Ports Get Automated?
August 21, 2023 // But U.S. officials say the country’s ports face big hurdles in adding robots, including space constraints, the tough economics of getting a return on hefty investments and, most prominently, fierce opposition from organized labor. The labor concerns at ports are part of the questions over automation arising in the broader industrial economy as businesses look to use more robotics in a range of logistics operations, from warehouse work to self-driving trucks. Wrangling over automation was one reason recent contract talks between West Coast dockworkers and their employers dragged on for more than a year before the two sides reached a tentative agreement in June. The hot-button issue is now shifting to the ports on the East Coast and Gulf Coast. The leader of the union that represents East Coast and Gulf Coast dockworkers, the International Longshoremen’s Association, told a convention in July he intends to build an international coalition of maritime unions to stop automation in maritime operations. “There’s going to be an explosion and the ILA and the dockers around the world are going to light the fuse,” ILA President Harold Daggett said. “It’s time we put companies out of business that push automation.”