Speaking In His Dual Leadership Roles With International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and International Dockworkers’ Council (IDC), Dennis Daggett Challenges Global Dockers To “Draw The Line Together” and Fight Elimination of Dockworkers From Automation; Pays Tribute To SEAL Dockworkers For Courage Surviving Five-Year Strike
LISBON, PORTUGAL (November 5, 2025) Longshore Union Leader Dennis A. Daggett charged up the hundreds of delegates attending the Profits Over People: Anti-Automation Conference” with forceful remarks delivered at the opening session of the two day “People Over Profits: Anti-Automation Conference” held at the Pavilhão Carolos Lopes Convention Center in central Lisbon, Portugal.
Daggett, the Executive Vice President of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and General Coordinator of the world-wide International Dockworkers Council (IDC) spelled out the employers’ real intention at automate port facilities around the world.
“But let’s be clear —this isn’t about moving cargo faster,” Daggett told the attentive gathering of global dockers and maritime workers. “It’s about moving us out of the picture. It’s about cutting labor to pad profits. It’s about eliminating people, not improving performance.”
Automation left unchecked with spread to all waterfront facilities around the world and into other industries as well, Daggett warned.
“What’s happening in one port today will happen in another tomorrow.
“This time, we call it what it is: a corporate strategy to erase working-class jobs and spin it under a feel-good word like modernization,” continued Daggett. “But we know exactly what it is – job-killing technology, plain and simple!”
Daggett took aim at Automated Gate Systems that he described as “the lifeline of every terminal.”
He cited systems branded as “Smart Tec,” “Smart Gate,” and “Gate Operating Systems” as ones using cameras, AI vision, and RFID sensors to scan every truck, chassis, and container.
“Drivers check in through apps, barriers lift automatically, and transactions happen with little or no human contact,” described Daggett. “They promote it as modernization —but we know what it really is: another step toward removing the human element from our ports and cutting the jobs that sustain working families.
At the outset of his address to global delegates, Daggett paid tribute to the host country’s dockworkers – the rank-and-file members of SEAL, who won a major labor victory after surviving a four-year strike.
“This gathering, this conference, this resistance —we dedicate it to our brave brothers and sisters from SEAL, the dockworkers union of Portugal,” said Daggett. “Their five-year strike wasn’t just a battle —it was an all-out war for survival.”
The hundreds of delegates in attendance at the Lisbon Conference cheered the seven SEAL members who were on strike for four years and were in attendance: André Santos, Bruno Mota, Bruno Pires, Hugo Joel, Hugo Toneiro, Luis Francisco and Sérgio Fernandes.
The ILA and IDC leader also paid tribute to his father, Harold J. Daggett, International ILA President who opened the conference with the keynote address.
Dennis Daggett noted his father’s longevity in the industry is nearing 60 years.
“He’s been our chief negotiator and has secured what many believe to be the strongest automation protections in the world, Dennis Daggett said of his father and the ILA leader. “Not just in the U.S. —but in the world.
“But what inspires me most about Harold Daggett isn’t just his legacy —it’s that he’s still fighting like hell,” praised Dennis Daggett. “At 79 years old, after decades of protecting and preserving jobs for generations of ILA families —he still gets up every morning ready to swing.”
Even with the success last year of the ILA’s landmark six-year Master Contract agreement that produced iron-clad contractual language that protests ILA longshore workers from automation at Atlantic and Gulf ports, Dennis Daggett applauded ILA President Harold Daggett’s motive for creating and spearheading the Anti-Automation Summit.
“He’s got that fire in his gut, that grit in his soul, and that relentless drive to make sure Longshore workers have a future —not just today, but for generations to come, said Dennis Daggett of the ILA leader. “He doesn’t just want to know he did his job. He wants to leave this world knowing we’re armed and ready to defend our jobs for the rest of time. And that, my friends, is why we’re here today.”
