This education link has been set up to keep all ILA members informed of what’s taking place in our industry; past and present. This site will include articles, stories, photographs and videos. At times, some of the videos will include training and be educational. Other times, we will take a look into our past and learn more and more about the history of this union and how it was built into what it is today.
ILA Education/History
OFFICIAL ILA EDUCATION/HISTORY PAGE ENDORSED BY OUR INTERNATIONAL
Never forget the sacrifices ILA members made to build our great union into what it is today
Port of NY/NJ
ILA members unload new straddle carriers at Maher Terminals, Port Elizabeth, NJ on September 1, 2026.
Cargotec has now become Terminal Crane and Electric.
Photo Credit:
Dean Raslowsky
Thank you!!
#InternationalLongshoremensAssociation
2 CommentsComment on Facebook
Im sure theyre already set up to drive themselves too at the flip of a switch😡😡
Thanks Kenny ! Glad to be part of this great union ! More strads coming next week !
Port of NY/NJ
ILA LOCAL 1588’S MALDONADO AND SAMPSON NAMED TO THE 2026 LABOR POWER LIST
Please join us in congratulating ILA International Vice President/ILA Local 1588 President Virgil Maldonado and ILA Local 1588 member and NJ State Assemblyman Will Sampson on being named to the Labor Power List 2026.
With an office in Bayonne, Maldonado-in addition to his local duties-serves as International Longshoreman’s Association Vice President of a region that covers everything from the Great Lakes to Maine, to Florida and Texas. Over 85,000 members and growing. A big dog beyond New Jersey, he still serves 600 longshoremen right on the waterfront in his hometown. A key ally of Hudson County Sheriff Jimmy Davis and Assemblyman Will Sampson.
Sampson, a Longshoreman by trade with ILA Local 1588 and a key ally of Virgil Maldonado, covers the waterfront on all issues pertinent to labor.
CONGRATULATIONS BROTHERS!
#InternationalLongshoremensAssociation
51 CommentsComment on Facebook
Congratulations boys!!! Well deserved…
Maaaa Mannnsss and them!!! 2 Excellent Men, 2 UNION MEN... Congratulations Gentlemen.
Congratulations Guys
Congratulations brothers!
Congratulations 👏👏👏 God Bless
Congrats gentlemen!!
Congratulations gentlemen!
Congratulations. Well deserved.
Congratulations 🎉!ILA Proud!!!
Great leaders! Well deserved!
Congratulations to you both!!
Congratulations Virgil..🍾
Way to go Virgil! So well deserved! 👏👏
Congratulations!!! Two great guys!!!
Congratulations
Congratulations to the both of you.
2 of the Best Congratulations Gentlemen!!
Congrats!
Yes sir 💪 Congrats fellas
Congrats Virgil 🤗🤗
Congratulations Virgil well deserved my friend!
👍
Congratulations 👏👏👏
Congratulations
Port of Savannah
February 24, 1969
Longshoremen lift carpet backing from the hold of a ship at the Port of Savannah, GA during the winter of 1969.
#InternationalLongshoremensAssociation
30 CommentsComment on Facebook
Different hats to get a job is Fr I see#Bluecollarwork
Im sure my dad Chester Dunham was somewhere around too
The elite were the cotton cutters.
These were good jobs back in the day.
Real Ogs ain't brag about nun just worked 💯
My grandpa Al Stephens Sr. 🫡🥰🥰
Jute had a distinctive odor
Bill Price
🥰🥰🥰
Marked thousands of roll of Burlap in my time, 46 yrs in the dock. Glad you pointed out Ben Johnson, he was one of a kind and my friend!
That’s my dad in the back
Look like break bulk paper work
Now, these were real longshoremen. That works hard.
A Cards. ✌🏾👍🏾👍🏾💯
Shebbie C Pierce where u been. At 👀👀👀
I worked with Ben Johnson!!! I Love the ILA Local 1414!!!
Longshoreman…..import, export expediter .
My dad Benjamin Johnson A card in the coveralls.
My family ILA,DNA !
Looka my uncle
Real Longshoremen
What is that they're working on
Roy Hurt - director of traffic for Steven’s shipping and GM for Kerr Steamship. He would have made the arrangements for those “gangs” to work
Back in the day before containers. Stevens, Smith & Kelly, Ryan-Walsh, SEMCO, Palmetto, Wood Chip Exports, Coal Exports, Eller & Co. Mose Gregory, Singletary, Ernest Green....Johnny Ward....
No Vests .No hard hats.Damm we come a long ways
Saint John
New Brunswick
Canada
ILA LOCAL 273 LABOUR DAY PARADE
#InternationalLongshoremensAssociation
1 CommentComment on Facebook
Go Union
Labor Day 2026
Enjoy your Labor Day holiday ILA Sisters and Brothers!
#InternationalLongshoremensAssociation
1 CommentComment on Facebook
Recognition and appreciation for all who work for the International Longshoreman Association ! Liberty and justice for all !!
A MESSAGE FROM ILA INTERNATIONAL EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT DENNIS A. DAGGETT:
Labor Day is an opportunity to reflect on the generations of working men and women who came before us and the sacrifices they made to build a better life for their families. For the ILA, that history can be seen in the incredible transformation of our industry and the ability of our Union to survive and evolve through it.
There was a time when nearly everything coming across our docks was physically handled by longshoremen. Breakbulk and palletized cargo required tremendous manpower, but it also required skill, experience and trust among the Longshore people working the ship. Longshore work was physically demanding and dangerous, and the people who performed it took great pride in knowing their craft and getting the job done.
Containerization changed the waterfront forever. Beginning in the late 1950s and 1960s, cargo that once required large gangs of longshoremen could suddenly be placed inside a steel or aluminum box and moved by container handling equipment. In many respects, containerization was the automation of its time, and the impact on our workforce was enormous. The Port of New York and New Jersey once had approximately 50,000 ILA members. Today, even on our busiest days, we have a little over 5,000 working. Containerization took us from 50,000 members to 5,000. We cannot afford to lose any more, and that is why we fight so hard to protect and preserve the jobs and opportunities we have today.
But the ILA survived because we evolved with the industry. Today’s longshore workforce operates and maintains some of the largest and most sophisticated cargo handling equipment in the world. Our members have become highly skilled crane and equipment operators, mechanics, clerks, checkers and just simply waterfront professionals working in complex, technology driven marine terminals. The work of yesteryear demanded physical strength and endurance, while today’s waterfront demands skill, precision and experience to safely and efficiently operate some of the most sophisticated equipment in the world. The waterfront may look completely different, but the experience, judgment and skill of the people working it remain just as important.
As we face another technological phase of challenges through automation and artificial intelligence, we must remember the lessons of our own history. We know what technology can do to a workforce, and we cannot allow another generation of good jobs to simply disappear.
Our strongest defense is to demonstrate every day why a skilled ILA workforce remains essential to this industry. Safety must always come first, because no production number is worth someone getting injured or not returning home to their family. At the same time, we must work efficiently and productively. We should never give an employer an excuse to use poor productivity as an argument for replacing our members with machines.
Technology should be used to make our members safer and more productive, not to eliminate them. Employers may continue looking for ways to reduce manpower, overtime and labor costs, but our responsibility is to continue proving the value of the human element on the waterfront, and we will continue to fight back.
The generations before us fought to give us the opportunities we have today. This Labor Day, we honor them not only by remembering what they accomplished, but by protecting what they left behind and making sure there is an opportunity for the generations that follow us.
The equipment has changed, the ships have changed and the waterfront has changed, but the responsibility of the ILA has not: protect our members, protect our jurisdiction and protect the future of longshore work!!
This weekend please keep those ILA member’s who paid the ultimate sacrifice in your thoughts and Prayers….
Happy Labor Day to our ILA family and to the working class!!
#InternationalLongshoremensAssociation
4 CommentsComment on Facebook
Great message 👍
Happy Labor Day!
I wasn’t raised in the ILA but I had 3 other union jobs. We are so lucky that we can learn our history. I hope the young union members check this page out!
Go Union
LABOR DAY 2026
On this Labor Day weekend we take a moment to salute all our ILA Sisters and Brothers working around the clock, day and night, to keep this country moving.
We also want to recognize and remember all who came before us that have sacrificed so much to build the ILA into a workforce that is known all throughout the world!
Enjoy your Labor Day weekend!!
Be safe!!
God Bless!!
#InternationalLongshoremensAssociation
8 CommentsComment on Facebook
Yes and those old trolly carts , we landed the the pallets of sacks on !
In the port of HFX we had bags going to Russia called Jumbo 180 lbs slug them all day was no problem sleeping at night 🕺👍
Happy Labor Day stay safe and don’t stand under the freight going out of hole what goes up can will come down you all make the world go round
Thank God for Farmers,Truck Drivers,Nurses and the ILA!!!
Labor is what we sell.
I can remember sack jobs ..heavy lifting work
Yes indeed be safe to all.have a great couple of days if possible thank all.for there work ethic
Why didn't they support local 333 in 1988. Lots of good men went broke. ?????? Waiting...
Port of Philadelphia
November 1923
This Longshoremen stands with his four children outside of his Philadelphia home at 2nd and Brown Streets as he gets ready to leave for work on the docks at the Port of Philadelphia in the fall of 1923.
More often than not, his children would be taken out of school and sent to work on the waterfront with him so his family could make a living and bring home a decent income.
God Bless the ILA!
Enjoy your Labor Day weekend Sisters and Brothers!!
#InternationalLongshoremensAssociation
2 CommentsComment on Facebook
Great message Brother Dave Scala! Thank you!!
A different time. Thank you for sharing! This should humble us all and make us reflect. Thank God for Unions and how they changed the landscape for ALL workers within the United States. I believe around 1935, it was Unions that fought to protect children and insisted congress adopt the Child Labor Laws that exist to today. Those laws help protect our nation's children from these sad situations that once exsisted. Unions negotiated fair wages for its members to be capable of earning a living wage, so that their children could attend school. After the great depression, our country banded together to protect one another from the suffering that happened during the depression. A massive labor movement lead by Unions strengthened our nation. By the 1950s Union activism had reached its peak; even the labor force who was not Unionized benefitted from Union protections. That time is generally considered the greatest era of growth for our country. Since that time, some (not all) businesses began its onslaught against labor and specifically Unions. False narratives, disinformation, and the purchase of political machines have attempted to drive a nail in organized labor, as we, the ILA experienced in our most recent strike of 2024. Once again you will witness Unions being the instrument that protects ALL workers from the threat to their livelihoods, and their dignity being taken away by profiteers who will automate their jobs. A great capitalist grows its business while growing its labor force and sharing in its growth with its workforce. A bad capitalist decimates its workforce by reducing labor and stripping away a living wage. I know this just seems like another post, but if you can for a moment feel what that member and his family went through in the early 1900s; you can put into perspective where we are today. It is our duty as Union members to continue to protect and honor what so many had sacrificed for. That members life didn't just change after he signed a pledge card. Lets again for a moment think about the actual realities in which early organized labor movement had to face; loss of employment, threats, physical confrontations, arrest, starvation, and even death. That member didn't just sign a pledge card and begin to receive wage increases, pensions, medical care, and other benefits the next day. It took years of activism (fight) to begin to reach those levels. Banding together with your neighbors who lived with the same struggles. I hope we all can reflect on what it means to be a member of a Union and ask ourselves if we are doing all that we can do to protect our Union, and also honor the sacrifice that this member and his family endured during the early years of the formation of our great Union. Happy Labor Day! I love my Union! ILA all the way!
LABOR DAY
September 7, 2026
May God Bless the ILA members and their families on this Labor Day 2026!
We are the International Longshoremen’s Association
Established 1892
#InternationalLongshoremensAssociation
2 CommentsComment on Facebook
My Grandfather gave his life on the docks in Baltimore.
The Dockerty, the Collins, the police, the EL fees, the lambs Hank, Riley, Leo Mullen, Mike Collins, Bill Boyd McKenna‘s Masse
Port of Virginia
Hampton Roads
ILA LOCAL 1624 CLERKS AND CHECKERS SWEARS IN NEW MEMBERS AT HAMPTON ROADS
Please join us in welcoming and congratulating the newly sworn in members of ILA Local 1624, Clerks and Checkers, out of Hampton Roads, Port of Virginia.
In photograph:
ILA Local 1624 President Kevin Halstead swears in new members at their monthly membership meeting on September 1, 2026.
We wish you success and happiness in your new career!!
Congratulations and welcome to the ILA!
Photo credit:
Mike Heath, Vice President, ILA Local 1624
Thank You!!
#InternationalLongshoremensAssociation
14 CommentsComment on Facebook
Congratulations from #1416
I'm trying to become a checker after I being a longshoreman in Savannah.. Maybe I can come up there and try to get on there.. I'm ready for a move.
Welcome Aboard
Congratulations
I’m so proud! Now get out there & don’t give ‘em the satisfaction!!! 🤘🏻🤘🏻
🫡💪🏾🫶🏽
Congratulations
Congratulations 🎊
Congratulations
Congratulations
CONGRATULATIONS!