ILA President Daggett Threatens to ‘Cripple’ U.S. Economy with Port Strike

DAGGETT: “What was the question again?”
Reporter: “Well, it was just about — like, I remember, like, how significantly it impacted our businesses, like, the supply chain, because — “
DAGGETT: “I’m glad you brought that up.”
Reporter: “ — I live on the Chesapeake Bay and all the ships were just waiting on the other side — “
DAGGETT: “Liz, let me explain something to you. These people today don’t know what a strike is. When my men hit the streets from Maine to Texas, every single port will lock down. You know what’s going to happen? I’ll tell you. First week, be all over the news every night, boom, boom. Second week, guys who sell cars can’t sell cars because the cars ain’t coming in off the ships, they get laid off. Third week, malls start closing down, they can’t get the goods from China, they can’t sell clothes, they can’t do this. Everything in the United States comes on a ship. They go out of business. Construction workers get laid off because the materials aren’t coming in, the steel is not coming in, the lumber’s not coming in, they lose their job. Everybody’s hating the longshoremen now because now they realize how important our jobs are. Now I have the president screaming at me, ‘I’m putting a Taft-Hartley on you.’ Go ahead. Taft-Harley means I I have to go back to work for 90 days. That’s a cooling-off period. Do you think, when I go back for 90 days, those men are going to go to work on that pier? It’s going to cost the money, the company’s money, to pay their salaries while they went from 30 moves an hour maybe to eight. They’re going to be like this. Who’s going to win here in the long run? You’re better off sitting down and let’s get a contract and let’s move on with this world. In today’s world, I’ll cripple you. I will cripple you and you have no no idea what that means. Nobody does.”