NEWS: Sanders Statement in Solidarity with Port Workers

WASHINGTON, Oct. 3 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), today released the following statement in support of the 50,000 port workers in the International Longshoreman’s Association who went on strike this week across the country:

I stand in strong solidarity with the 50,000 port workers in the International Longshoreman’s Association who went out on strike this week from Maine to Texas against the outrageous corporate greed that is taking place in the shipping industry.

While port workers put their lives on the line during the horrendous pandemic to keep the economy going, ocean carriers in the shipping industry saw their profits skyrocket by as much as 800 percent and have made a record-breaking $400 billion in profits since 2020.

What the port workers are fighting for is not radical. All they are asking for is a fair share of the profits that their labor has generated.

Over the past 20 years, average wages for port workers along the East Coast have gone down by nearly 12% after adjusting for inflation.

Today, the average income for East Coast port workers is just $60,000 a year and many East Coast port workers make as little as $20 an hour – the same wage that a fast food worker in California currently makes.

And let’s be clear. This strike is not just about better wages and benefits.

It is also about an issue that will impact virtually every worker in America. And that is the need to make sure that CEOs and the billionaire class are not able to use the incredible advancements in new technology, automation, and artificial intelligence as a tool to impoverish the working class. Workers must benefit from the revolution in new technology, not just the one percent.

In my view, we cannot allow the multi-billionaire owners of ocean carriers to become even richer by throwing port workers out on the street and replacing them with robots and machines. 

It is time for the shipping industry to end its greed, negotiate in good faith with its union workers, and sign a fair union contract immediately.