Even before taking office, President-elect Donald Trump is getting credit for helping to head off a major port strike threatening the economy, after siding with a dockworkers’ union in a dispute with shipping companies over automation.
The union’s leader and even some critics of the incoming president say a forceful statement from Trump against replacing workers with machines was enough to tip the scales in contract talks between the International Longshoremen’s Association and a coalition of port operators and shipping companies.
It’s a big coup for Trump in his effort to court blue-collar support, though it remains unclear whether he can truly earn a place in labor’s good graces.
In many ways, the port labor dispute was unique, because it pitted American workers against an industry dominated by foreign shipping companies — a natural enemy for the MAGA movement. It also came as corporate leaders are bending over backwards not to offend Trump.
And as with other Trump moves that buck the Republican convention, a personal relationship played a substantial role in his decision-making — in this case, one dating back decades with longshoremen’s union boss Harold Daggett.
Many other union leaders remain deeply distrustful of Trump, pointing to appointees in his first term who were hostile to labor’s priorities and his new alliance with business mogul Elon Musk. The pair jocularly mused in August about employers firing workers for picketing — an illegal tactic under federal labor law.
But Daggett isn’t among the skeptics. In an effusive statement after reaching a tentative deal with port terminal owners and shipping companies on the East and Gulf coasts, he said his union regards Trump as “one of the greatest friends of organized labor and champion of the working men and women of this country.”
It was a slap in the face to President Joe Biden, who ran one of the most pro-union administrations in recent history. Biden installed labor-friendly appointees in key positions and walked a picket line during the UAW’s 2023 strike against Detroit’s Big Three automakers.
Trump came out swinging against the shipping industry and in support of the ILA when Daggett visited Mar-a-Lago last month. On his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote that the savings from automation “is nowhere near the distress, hurt, and harm it causes for American Workers, in this case, our Longshoremen.”
This time, Trump and Musk, an outspoken foe of unions, weren’t on the same page. Musk had trolled Daggett on X for a lavish lifestyle, allegations of corruption and trying to keep ports in the “stone age” by fighting automation.
Those in Trump’s orbit with a more populist agenda were gleeful.
“Does Elon Musk have influence? Certainly. Does he have power? No,” said Steve Bannon, a former top Trump aide who has also battled Musk over the business mogul’s support for visas for high-tech workers. “President Trump’s default position is always going to be support for the American worker. He was very upfront about he was against this automation that would take out swaths of workers.”
Musk did not respond to a request for comment.
A top national labor official, who was granted anonymity to speak freely, said that Trump’s statement opposing automation “was one of the best things I’ve ever seen come out of his mouth or pen.”
But the person was unsure what that meant for the long-term future of labor’s relationships with Trump, given that he and Daggett are old friends, and not everyone in organized labor has that history with the president-elect.
Trump was a mixed bag on labor issues in his first term, the official said.
“I’m not entirely sure what lessons can be learned from this,” the official said. “There’s no logical consistency on whether you’re actually supporting workers.”
Indeed, Trump didn’t burn bridges with the business community. On Thursday, David Adam, the head of the United States Maritime Alliance, which represents shipping companies and terminal operators at major cargo ports, also praised Trump for helping make the deal possible.
One of the reasons the two sides may have reached a deal now is uncertainty about what Trump would do if he took office amid an ongoing strike. Would he move to block a work stoppage, as George W. Bush had during a West Coast port lockout in 2022, by invoking emergency authority under the Taft-Hartley Act, a 1947 labor law? Or would Trump allow the union to walk off the job, causing a nine-figure-per-day economic hit early in his term?
Now such questions are moot, pending union members’ ratification of the agreement.
Though Trump’s first administration was viewed as hostile to organized labor’s interests overall, he maintained a soft spot for police unions and the leadership representing Border Patrol agents, both of which endorsed his campaign. In December, he named recently retired National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd as his pick to become ambassador to Chile.
Other unions have also ingratiated themselves to Trump by appealing to him directly. High among them is the Teamsters, whose leader, Sean O’Brien, met with Trump at his properties during the presidential campaign and later during the transition.
The Teamsters peeved Democrats this fall when O’Brien said it would not endorse their presidential ticket for the first time in the 21st century — a decision Trump touted as tantamount to a win for him.
O’Brien also won a speaking slot at the Republican National Convention and successfully pushed former Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-Ore.), who recently lost re-election and is union-friendly, to be Trump’s Labor secretary nominee.
“That said, there will be a point of conflict sooner rather than later” with Trump-appointed judges being opposed to powers wielded by the National Labor Relations Board and Labor Department, said Michael LeRoy, who advised George W. Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers on the Taft-Hartley Act and is now a labor professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
LeRoy added that Trump’s intervention in the dockworkers battle raises expectations that he will get involved in future union disputes. One question, he said, is whether the Teamsters may seek Trump’s help as they pursue a contract with Amazon.
Rep. Bobby Scott of Virginia, the House Education and Workforce Committee’s top Democrat, said it’s unclear if the dockworkers union could have gotten where it is without Biden, or without bustling business at the ports.
“The administration made it clear that they expected the workers to get a fair share of the wealth they’re creating — the ports are doing well,” he said. “You would not have been able to get a contract this good for the workers if the ports weren’t profitable, and the ports are profitable.”
New Jersey state Sen. Joe Cryan, a Democrat who represents a district by the East Coast’s largest port and is a union ally, said Daggett’s approach to both Biden and Trump was masterful.
“The politician of the year in New Jersey and around the country is Harold Daggett,” Cryan said.
In light of Daggett’s praise of the president-elect, Cryan said Democrats need to make sure they are paying attention to what workers are saying.
“If we don’t hear them, we’ll be gone soon, too,” he said.