A protracted dockworker strike could inflict political damage on Vice President Kamala Harris as the November elections quickly approach.
On Tuesday, tens of thousands of members of the International Longshoremen’s Association at ports from Maine to Texas began striking after their six-year contract expired. Workers at the 36 East and Gulf coast ports involved are demanding large pay raises and a ban on automation.
This is the first strike at East and Gulf coast ports since 1977, and given the scale of the work stoppage, it presents an economic headache for President Joe Biden and Harris, the Democratic candidate for president. The longer the strike continues, the more damage it will do to the economy and the more it could hurt Harris.
“Biden and his proxies are stuck between a rock and a hard place,” Dan Bowling, a visiting professor at Georgia State University’s law school who teaches about labor union matters, told the Washington Examiner.
Notably, Biden has the power to act and force an end to the strike under the Taft-Hartley Act, but he could damage his administration’s pro-union bona fides and jeopardize union support for Harris. The Taft-Hartley Act amended the National Labor Relations Act to give the executive authority to intervene in instances that represent national emergencies.
If Biden did intervene, it would impose an 80-day cooling-off period under Taft-Hartley, during which a strike would be averted because the longshoremen would return to work while negotiations continued.
But Biden is not ready to take that step. The president has said he doesn’t believe in Taft-Hartley, although his administration is working behind the scenes to help the two sides reach an agreement.
Read more at Washingtonexaminer.com
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