NORTH BERGEN, NJ – (October 23, 2025) The goal of International Longshoremen’s Association President Harold J. Daggett to bring dockworker and other maritime union leaders from around the world together for a conference to combat the ongoing threat of automation will be achieved in less than two weeks in Lisbon, Portugal.
In that Western European port city, “People Over Profit: Anti-Automation Conference” will take place on November 5 and 6, 2025 at the Pavilhão Carolos Lopes Convention Center in Lisbon, Portugal, where hundreds of union maritime officials and workers have registered to participate in the two-day Lisbon Summit.
Since the ILA’s Quadrennial Convention more than two years ago, ILA President Daggett has been calling for all maritime unions to join in solidarity to address the threat of automation and put the brakes on Ocean Carriers from further destroying dockworker and maritime jobs worldwide. The ILA leader envisions all dockworker and maritime unions mirroring the success his union achieved last year when it successfully negotiated a landmark six-year Master Contract with United States Maritime Alliance that included iron-clad language to keep automation off the docks on Atlantic and Gulf Coasts. To achieve this success world-wide, ILA President Daggett is looking to establish a Global Alliance among dockworker and maritime unions that will challenge any further erosion of waterfront jobs through automation.
“All maritime unions are facing the threat of automation robbing their ran-and-file members of their livelihoods and destroying their unions,” said ILA President Harold J. Daggett, the leader of his 85,000-member longshore union. “All maritime unions meeting in Lisbon, Portugal on November 5 and 6 will present a powerful response to this automation threat in the strongest possible way and to do so unified.”
The ILA organized this Lisbon Summitt with the International Dockworkers’ Council, a trade union federation made up of dockworkers’ organizations from around the world. Currently, the IDC has more than 120,000 affiliated dockworkers world-wide. The ILA and IDC intend to formulate that global response to the threat of automation feeding off the success of the ILA’s six-year Master Contract Agreement.
Participants in the two-day Lisbon Summitt in early November will hear from leaders of the major dockworker and maritime unions; engage in panel discussions and learn about the negative impact of automation from leading academic speakers.
“We are certain we will come out of that summit in early November more educated, unified and with a plan of action that mirrors my own union’s course of action last year that will produce similar success for all the maritime unions who join this conference,” said ILA President Daggett. “This summit demonstrates to our members that we are fighting for their futures.”