NORTH BERGEN, NJ – (September 8, 2018) The International Longshoremen’s Association endorses Robert Menendez for reelection to the U.S. Senate from the State of New Jersey.
“Today, the thousands of ILA members and their families who live and work in New Jersey proudly and enthusiastically endorse our friend and champion of workers, Senator Bob Menendez for reelection to the U.S. Senate,” said Harold J. Daggett, International President of the ILA. “Senator Menendez has a decades-long record of supporting the ILA, the maritime industry and is a major reason why New Jersey’s Port Elizabeth and Port Newark are number one port on the East Coast. We need to keep him in Congress to continue to fight for America’s working class.”
The ILA and Sen. Menendez have been working together for many years from his early days as Mayor of Union City and a Congressman from Newark. The ILA applauds how Sen. Menendez has taken up the fight to strengthen the middle class and protect workers from powerful corporate interests. Sen. Menendez has often stated: “When our unions are strong, our economy and our middle class are strong.”
“Bob Menendez has made fighting for New Jersey’s middle class, expanding workers’ rights and creating good-paying jobs among his top legislative priorities,” said ILA President Daggett. “The Senator is a vocal advocate for making it easier for workers to unionize and to do so without any fear of retaliation, and has championed policies that protect employees from discrimination in the workplace. He works to ensure the fair treatment, basic rights, and workplace safety for all workers.”
Senator Menendez has long championed one the ILA’s most important legislative issues: reducing or eliminating government interference, specifically interference by the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor, into the Collective Bargaining Agreements between the ILA and New York Shipping Association in the Port of New York and New Jersey.
Senator Menendez long has championed and supported legislation and projects that promote tens of thousands of jobs in the Port of New York and New Jersey, including securing funding for maintaining and deepening federal navigation channels and raising the Bayonne Bridge. Thanks to Senator Menendez, the Port of New York and New Jersey retains its position as one of this nation’s largest ports. The Senator led initiatives on port security helping to keep our membership safe from terrorist threats.
New Jersey is home to two major U.S. port areas employing thousands of ILA members – The Port of New York and New Jersey, which includes Newark, Elizabeth, and Bayonne and the Port of Camden to the south and Congress has no better advocate than Senator Robert Menendez.
“New Jersey needs to return Sen. Menendez to Washington to keep fighting for the ILA and its members,” said President Daggett. “No one can match his experience, his dedication to New Jersey and its citizens and his tireless efforts to keep America strong and our nation’s middle class vibrant and healthy.”