Why We Should All Support the Dockworkers' Strike
Or, Why the Fight Against Corporate Greed Starts with Biden, Harris, and All of Us
Note: Stay tuned for part 2 on “The State of Our Election” shortly.
At midnight today, the US East Coast and Gulf Coast dockworkers went on strike only a month before the November elections.
These are the days you should be glad you’re not the president. As my other articles have suggested, President Biden—and Vice-President Kamala Harris—carry the weight of American democracy on their shoulders. Each mistake Biden makes in the Oval Office—and each mistake Harris makes on the campaign trail—carries with it the potential risk of allowing Donald Trump to return to power. The same man who incited an insurrection against our Capitol and our country on January 6.
Let us not ignore that backdrop to everything that the two of them do. To paraphrase Thomas Paine, these truly are the times that try all our souls. These strikes create an especially unique trial for both the Biden Administration and for Vice-President Harris’s campaign.
Historians have rightly called the Biden-Harris Administration the most pro-union administration since FDR’s. In 2021, he made the unprecedented decision to publicly support a unionizing effort in Alabama during a union organizing campaign. A year later, Biden executive orders established project labor agreements requiring the hiring of unionized workers for federal construction projects.
A year after that, he became the first president to walk a picket line, partially leading to one of the United Auto Workers union’s biggest wins in decades. Finally, just this year, he pushed pension funds to solely invest in companies that have appropriately high labor standards. It is quite a record of accomplishment over these past 4 years, and I am hardly scratching the surface. The Teamsters rank-and-file know that better than anyone.
Yet what about the dockworkers strike? Many worry about the possible economic fallout. Could it spike inflation? Some have suggested a prolonged (vs. a shorter strike of just a few days) runs a greater risk of doing so. Others argue that the strike will not have the impact many fear it will have, either due to already-softening consumer demand or because the strike is merely a “temporary disruption” to the economy as a whole.
Either way, the Biden Administration knows the perils of underestimating inflation, and the political risks outweigh even those economic risks. Will Biden’s decision to let this strike continue jeopardize his historic pro-union legacy? Or would a decision to stop the strike be even worse? How should Biden and Harris balance the just demands of the dockworkers with the fight for democracy for the people and for workers?
The short answer? Someone needs to blink. And why should the union be the one to blink when the shipping industry has made $400 billion in profits since 2020? Why should the union blink in the face of the automation threat? In the age of AI, worker protections are more important than ever, which is why even screenwriters have been forced to the picket lines to protect their livelihoods.
Someone needs to blink, and those someones should not be the union members. Which is why President Biden and Vice-President Harris need to send a clear message to the American people. It is on the shipping industry employers to end this strike. If the strike goes on for more than a few days, the American people will put the rightful blame on them for anything that happens.
The industry titans will try to protest. They are not at fault, they will say. Blame the workers for putting their economic interests before the country’s. But when those partially responsible for greedflation try to run off with their record-setting profits, why should their workers simply accept whatever crumbs their masters leave them? Especially when those same types of masters have caused the American people so much pain at the pump and at the grocery store?
Make no mistake: the dockworkers have the clear bargaining advantage, both on the economics and on the messaging front. But only if the Administration puts its full weight behind them. As President Biden did when he hit the streets and joined the picket line.
Vice-President Harris might want to pay special attention to the workers’ demands for democratic capitalism. To win this election, she will likely have to shore up her support among union members. She will have to give them a reason to trust her when it really counts. Making a memorable and very public stand for the dockworkers may go a long way in doing that. Those types of bold actions convince people where policy proposals and talking points do not.
Please, Vice-President Harris. Support the unions. Even consider joining the picket lines if it will help the cause. Don’t worry about the political risks. At this point, you have to realize that any decision you make has a clear political risk.
To paraphrase Martin Luther King Jr., show the American people who you really are by making clear where you stand in these times of challenge and controversy. Trust me, they will not forget. And if you make the right gamble, you will reap the rewards at the ballot box.
And if we the American people get behind the dockworkers and the other workers fighting to protect their families and livelihoods, who knows what we can achieve as one United States of America.