Mr. Harold J. Daggett

International President
International Longshoremen’s Association

Harold J. Daggett was unanimously re-elected to a third four-year term as International President of the International Longshoremen’s Association at the union’s quadrennial convention in July 2019. He was first elected International President in 2011, becoming the ninth president in the ILA’s 124 years of existence; and then re-elected in 2015. As International President, Mr. Daggett serves as chief negotiator for the ILA representing 45,000 ILA members at port areas from Maine to Texas, Great Lakes region, Puerto Rico, major U.S. Rivers and Eastern and Central Canada.

President Daggett successfully negotiated a new six-year Master Contract extension with United States Maritime Alliance in September 2018 that will remain in effect until September 30, 2024. The Contract includes landmark provisions including full protection for ILA members against loss of jobs resulting from automated ports. USMX agreed that no fully automated terminals would be constructed at ILA ports for the life of the contract. The six-year agreement includes generous increases in wages and funding and protections for the national health care program, called MILA.

Within his eight years as International President, Harold Daggett has now negotiated two major contracts that keep ILA members among the best compensated blue-collar workers in America.

In September 2013, Mr. Daggett was elected as a Vice President to the Executive Council of the AFL-CIO. He also serves on the Executive Council of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO. Mr. Daggett also holds leadership positions with the International Dockers Council (IDC) and the International Transport Workers’ Federation.

A third generation ILA member, Mr. Daggett followed in the footsteps of his father and namesake, Harold Daggett, Sr., who worked in the ILA industry for 57 years. Mr. Daggett himself is now a veteran of over 50 years with the ILA having first joined ILA Local 1804-1 following an honorable discharge from the U.S. Navy in 1967, where he served in Vietnam in the mid-1960s.

He began his ILA career as a mechanic with Local 1804-l and eventually worked his way up to foreman. For 11 years, he was with Sea-Land Services until his appointment in 1980 as Secretary-Treasurer and Business Agent ILA Local 1804-1.

He was later re-elected six times to that post, while also serving terms as Secretary-Treasurer of the New York-New Jersey District Council. In 1998, he was elected President of ILA Local 1804-1.

Daggett’s responsibilities with the ILA were expanded in 1991 with his election as Secretary-Treasurer of the Atlantic Coast District. He was later reelected ACD Secretary in 1995 and 1999.

For 12 years prior to his election as International President in 2011, Daggett served as an ILA Executive Officer: eight years as Assistant General Organizer and four years as Executive Vice President.

After leading the one of the largest locals in the ILA as president for 14 years, Harold Daggett stepped down as president of ILA Local 1804-1 in September 201l. He now is President Emeritus of ILA Local 1804-1.

In 2019, Harold Daggett was honored with two major maritime awards. He was the 2019 Man of the Year at the New York – New Jersey Foreign Freight Forwarders and Brokers Association Annual Dinner in February 2019 and was also inducted into the International Maritime Hall of Fame in May 2019.

In October 2013, the ILA’s Alexander Talmadge-Edward L. Brown, Sr. Civil Rights Committee honored him at the organization’s first Dinner celebration. In 2015, Mr. Daggett was the Guest of Honor at the Foreign Commerce Club Annual Dinner.

In June 2015, Mr. Daggett was honored by the New Jersey AFL-CIO as its Outstanding Labor Leader.

Mr. Daggett was born in West Greenwich Village in Lower Manhattan, New York and spent his boyhood years in Woodside, Queens. He distinguished himself in scouting, first as a Cub Scout and later as a Boy Scout with Troop 127 in Queens. In his adult life, Mr. Daggett was honored by the Greater New York City Council, Boy Scouts of America with their prestigious Good Scout Award.

Mr. Daggett studied at Cardinal Farley Military Academy in upstate New York, from which he graduated from prior to joining the U.S. Navy.

Mr. Daggett has been a member of numerous labor and maritime committees. He has served as a Wage Scale delegate for his local since 1981.

Through his local leadership, Mr. Daggett and the members of Local 1804-1 have raised more money for the ILA Children’s Fund—which benefits The Hole In the Wall Gang Camp—than any other local in ILA. Mr. Daggett is actively involved in other charities, including Toys for Tots and St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital.

The father of three children—Lisa, Dennis and John—Harold resides in Sparta, New Jersey.