ILA and Its President Harold Daggett Enjoy Banner Year in 2023 Establishing Longshore Union As “A Force To Be Reckoned With” in the U.S. and Around the World; ILA Leader Pledges To Deliver Greatest Master Contract in 2024
NORTH BERGEN, NJ – (December 31, 2023) ILA President Harold Daggett elevated his union to international prominence in 2023 bringing together Dockworker Union Leaders from around the world to his International Convention in July; creating an International Maritime Alliance to band all dockers unions together to fight against the onslaught of job-destroying automation; and positioned the ILA as a powerful force as it negotiates a new Master Contract with United States Maritime Alliance in 2024.
The ILA Leaders and his entire Executive Officers team were all unanimously re-elected to new four-year terms at the July convention. For President Daggett, it was his fourth election as International President, clearly establishing him as one of the most popular and successful presidents in ILA history. The success of negotiating two previous six-year Master Contracts in 2012 and 2018 that strengthened the ILA’s position against automation, coupled with his fortifying the ILA’s Treasury and expanding it organizing efforts to bring in newly affiliated longshore workers from the Bahamas, were but a few achievements that ILA members sited when it unveiled a statue in ILA President Daggett’s honor in June 2023 at the union’s headquarters in North Bergen, New Jersey.
As the ILA celebrates the New Year, ILA President Daggett extended this message to his membership: “My fellow ILA Executive Officers wish you and your families a Happy and Healthy New Year. Together, we achieved many great accomplishments in 2023 and I look to grow our ILA union stronger and mightier in 2024. Our goal is to negotiate a new Master Contract in 2024, and your ILA team will work tirelessly to achieve the greatest Master Contract in our union’s history before our current contract expires at the end of September 2024. I am grateful for your assurance that we will work together in negotiations and stand together if our management counterparts fail to deliver a contract package our members deserve. May God bless you and your families, and may God Bless America, Canada, Puerto Rico, and Bahamas.”
