ILA President Harold J. Daggett Message To Members as Nation Celebrates Dr. Martin Luther King’s Birthday

NORTH BERGEN, NJ –(January 18, 2021) As our nation honors Dr. (Rev.) Martin Luther King’s birthday on Monday, January 18, 2021, we know his dream of equality and justice for all of God’s children on earth is needed now more than ever.

Dr. King was truly a man of peace and the violence that befell our nation’s capital on January 6, 2021 was a painful reminder that we have so much more work to do.  We rejoice in the election of President-Elect Joseph Biden and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris and know that these leaders will best honor his legacy by fulling Dr. King’s vision for a more “perfect union.”  

I am honored that the men and women of the International Longshoremen’s Association remain ready and able to meet this challenge, as we have done for decades, fighting for Civil Rights, Workers’ Rights, Women’s Rights and Human Rights.  I am proud to note that the ILA recognized Dr. Martin Luther King’s Birthday as a union holiday years before it rightly and justly became a National American holiday.

On behalf of my ILA Executive Officers; our ILA Civil Rights Committee and the beloved tens of thousands of beloved men and women who make up the membership of our great union, let us celebrate Dr. King’s Birthday by recommitting our efforts to live and work by his poignant words:  “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

God bless the memory of Dr. King, his family; God bless ILA members and their families  and may God continue to bless America.