NORTH BERGEN, NJ (October 16, 2025) As job losses continue to mount globally at an alarming rate due to the ravages of automation, Harold J. Daggett, the president of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) is urging all Maritime Unions to attend an upcoming anti-automation conference his union is organizing along with the world-wide International Dockworkers Council (IDC), for November 5 and 6, 2025 in Lisbon, Portugal, to collectively address that treat and put the brakes on Ocean Carriers destroying dockworker and maritime jobs worldwide. Already, hundreds of maritime workers from scores of unions in countries around the world have registered to participate in the two-day conference being held at the Pavilhão Carolos Lopes Convention Center in Lisbon, Portugal, and the ILA leader is urging leaders of every sector of maritime to send a delegation to this summit.
“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, who successfully negotiated a landmark six-year agreement last year that fully protects his members against the automation threat. “All maritime unions need to be there to respond to this automation threat in the strongest possible way and to do so unified.”
President Daggett said the entire world needs to be better educated about the serious impact unchecked automation has on everyone’s livelihoods and their communities. He said the public needs to be convinced that the automation threat jeopardizes the stability of the world’s economy and safety.
“This week, you had the Democratic Governor of California, a supposed friend of labor, veto a Senate Bill that would have protected members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) against public tax money used to fund automated equipment at West Coast waterfront ports,” said Daggett. “This Portugal Conference in early November comes at a critical time when Maritime Unions and their memberships are fighting for their lives. We don’t want any union left out of the protections we can offer as one powerful alliance.”
The ILA leader envisions this Anti-Automation Lisbon Conference will produce the same protections for all participating unions against the threat automation as his union was able to achieve in its recent Master Contract Agreement.
“Last year, the ILA demonstrated to our country and the world that solidarity and a unified membership could successfully keep automation off our docks,” Daggett continued. “We showed determination and grit during a three-day strike that won us unimagined protections against automation. We convinced our employers that ILA members could out-produce automated equipment.”
ILA President Daggett first called for this world-wide conference publicly during his keynote address at the union’s 2023 International Convention.
“Now two years later, the treat to maritime workers from automation has increased dramatically,” said Daggett. “Governor Gavin Newsom’s disgraceful veto of a bipartisan bill to protect dockworkers is enough proof to show that a global response to a global threat is needed now.”
The ILA and IDC organizers of the Portugal Conference November 5 and 6, 2025 intend to formulate that global response to the threat of automation feeding off the success of the ILA’s six-year Master Contract Agreement.
“We are certain we will come out of that summit in early November more 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 the ILA leader. “Whether you represent dockworkers, ship captains and crews, or marine engineers, all maritime unions need to be at these anti-automation meetings in Lisbon, Portugal to demonstrate to their members that they are fighting for their futures.”
Registration for the Lisbon Summit – People Over Profits: Anti-Automation Conference can be made through this link:
https://idcdockers.wufoo.com/forms/slcpf3d1fht8a9/
