Stephen K. Knott

Secretary-Treasurer
International Longshoremen’s Association

Stephen Knott is Secretary-Treasurer of the International Longshoremen’s Association, a position he was first elected to at the union’s 2015 quadrennial convention, was twice re-elected to in 2019 and 2023. Stephen Knott has held senior International Executive leadership positions more than a decade, and is a veteran of over half a century with the International Longshoremen’s Association.

Prior to his election as International Secretary-Treasurer, Knott served one term as International General Vice President from 2011 to 2015. Previously, he served as president of the Atlantic Coast District, International Longshoremen’s Association, AFL-CIO from 2007-2011.

Knott also served for 16 years as President of ILA Local 1, Clerks and Checkers, in the Port of New York and New Jersey.

Knott first joined the ILA in 1966 as a member of ILA Local 1478 in New Jersey. A year later, he transferred to ILA Local 1, and worked at a variety of clerical and checking positions at several companies in Port Newark, including I.T.O. and Maher Terminals. He became hiring agent for I.T.O. and Maher from 1979 until 1988. It was in 1988 that Knott was elected Secretary-Treasurer of his Local 1, a position he served for eight years until his election as President of Local 1 in 1997.

Knott was also elected International Vice President and Executive Board member in 1997 and was reelected to that position for three additional four-year terms.
While serving as leader of the ACD, Knott was instrumental in establishing the Atlantic Coast District Technology and Compliance Committee to safeguard ILA jurisdiction for ILA Clerical and Checker workers, as well as Maintenance and Deep-Sea ILA employees.

In October 2022, Stephen Knott was honored as “Hero of the Harbor” by the Waterfront Alliance of New York Harbor. Knott was honored for his leadership role in keeping cargo moving across the country during the worldwide Covid pandemic.

He received the Civil Rights Labor Award from the ILA’s Civil Rights Committee and was the guest of honor in June 2022 at the Clarence Pittman Scholarship Dinner in Miami, Florida.

The Seafarer’s International House honored Stephen Knott in April 2015 at an event in New York City. He has also been honored by the Essex and Union County (New Jersey) chapters of the A. Philip Randolph Institute and was Man of the Year for the United Negro College Fund. He also received the Greater New York Council Boy Scouts of America Good Scout Award in 2008.

A native of New Jersey, Knott and his wife, Joanne, reside in the Garden State and are the parents of two daughters, Gina and Connie, and have four grandchildren.

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August 2023