Global Union Dockworkers Sign Historic “Lisbon Summit Resolution” That Creates World-Wide Alliance To Halt Expansion of Job Killing Automated Ports;
Alliance Members Pledge To Collectively Engage In Job Actions Against Companies That Invest in Machines Over Workers
LISBON, PORTUGAL (November 6, 2025) The “Anti-Automation Conference: People Over Profits” concluded their inaugural two-day summit with the signing of a historic “Lisbon Summit Resolution” that creates a Global Maritime Alliance to collectively fight any expansion of automating waterfront facilities around the world. In essence, this Alliance will look to mirror the success the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) achieved last year with the six-year Master Contract for longshore workers at Atlantic and Gulf Coast Ports in the United States that protects them against any forms of automation.
Harold J. Daggett, the ILA International President, and the architect of his union’s Master Contract that contains iron-clad language to prevent any port from introducing automation, organized this first “Anti-Automation Conference” held in Lisbon, Portugal, along with the International Dockworkers Council (IDC), with the goal of uniting global dockworker and maritime unions to join forces and collectively fight against job destroying port automation.
“The unions that sign on to this Lisbon Summit Resolution now make up the most powerful labor alliance that this world has ever seen,” said ILA President Harold J. Daggett in closing remarks prior to ILA and IDC leaders officially signing the labor pact. “The International Longshoremen’s Association showed the world that we would go out on strike to protect our jobs and livelihoods from automation. Now, this Labor Alliance sends the same message to our employers around the globe. As our resolution, known as The Lisbon Summit Resolution, clearly states: ‘dockworkers and maritime transport workers of the world establish a historic framework for unity and collective action against the threat of job-killing automation’.”
The two-day Lisbon Summit, attended by a thousand union dockworker and other maritime leaders from countries around the world, unanimously passed the Lisbon Summit Resolution. Their inclusion in this historic labor solidarity agreement will be fortified by scores of other global dockworker and maritime unions who intend to join the Global Maritime Alliance.
“Sisters and Brothers, I am fully confident we have the power and the resources to fight automation on a global scale,” the ILA leader said. “We must move forward with courage and determination.”
The ILA engaged in a three-day strike against United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) in October 2024 that ultimately won the union the greatest collective bargaining agreement ever negotiated. ILA President Daggett told the thousand delegates in Lisbon that the task of halting job destroying automation will not be an easy challenge.
“If sacrifices are required to block automation, we must be willing to make them. If enduring hardships are needed to achieve our goal of no automation on the waterfront, we must be willing to endure them, President Daggett said. “Remember, these will be selective job actions against the companies that defy us.”
The leaders of the ILA and IDC rated this inaugural “Anti-Automation Conference: People Over Profits” a huge success and said solidarity among global dockworkers and maritime workers was strengthened at the two-day meetings in Lisbon.
“Sisters and Brothers – our world-wide Maritime and Docker family -we are coming to the close of this historic two-day Summit but now beginning the fight of our lives,” Harold Daggett said. “Our voices shout out: NO TO AUTOMATION! We must be strong, we must be united, and we must be committed to take on this challenge together and never surrender. NEVER SURRENDER!”
