NORTH BERGEN, NJ – (October 15, 2025) ILA President Harold Daggett came out swinging today in a strongly worded letter of support and solidarity with the officers and members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, after California Governor Gavin Newsom turned his back on working men and women and vetoed a bi-partisan bill (SB 34) that would have prohibited public tax money to fund port automated equipment.
“With all the dysfunction in politics today, SB 34 stood out as a rare moment of bipartisan unity to protect working families,” wrote ILA President Harold Daggett to the ILWU. “Yet the Governor chose to side with the corporations and lobbyists, rather than with the people who build, move, and sustain this country.”
Here is the complete text of ILA President Harold Daggett’s letter to the ILWU:
October 15, 2025
To the Officers and Members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU)
Brothers and Sisters:
On behalf of the 85,000 members of the International Longshoremen’s Association, I extend our unwavering support and solidarity to the ILWU following California Governor Gavin Newsom’s disgraceful veto of SB 34. His decision is a direct betrayal of working men and women, the very people whose labor powers the economy of his state and this nation. He turned his back on the California rank-and-file workers who helped elect him as their Governor.
For years, I have warned that unless unions hold the line together, corporate greed will continue its march to eliminate good, family sustaining jobs in the United States and around the world. Governor Newsom’s veto proves that point. With all the dysfunction in politics today, SB 34 stood out as a rare moment of bipartisan unity to protect working families. Yet the Governor chose to side with the corporations and lobbyists, rather than with the people who build, move, and sustain this country.
When employers trade favors with well-connected lobbyists friends of those in power, it’s not democracy; it’s corruption. For a Governor to turn his back on workers and their families in exchange for corporate influence is sickening and disgusting. “Profits over people” isn’t just a slogan, it’s the sad reality we are fighting every day. But make no mistake: we will regroup, we will organize, and we will mobilize like never before.
The ILWU stood shoulder to shoulder with the ILA during our own fight on October 1, 2024, and I assure you; we now stand shoulder to shoulder with you. This fight is far from over.
Working-class people across every sector must rise up and send a message that our livelihoods are not bargaining chips for political favors. Together, we will defend our jobs, our families, and the generations that come behind us.
In Solidarity,
Harold J. Daggett
President
International Longshoremen’s Association
