Over the past two days, ILA delegates gathered in productive meetings, breaking new ground by strategizing on how to negotiate a Master Contract with the cruise lines. Top ILA officials from the International and both Districts sat down with officials from the Locals, bringing together a very talented group. The discussions were fruitful and productive.

There are some in the media who want to portray us as thugs, based on a movie that was made twenty one years before I was born called On the Waterfront. However, the ILA is determined to show the cruise lines the truth: that we are professional, that we care deeply about this industry, and that we are committed to being a major part of its success.

A Vision for the Future

This November 5th and 6th in Lisbon, the ILA is hosting the Anti-Automation Conference. The vision for this worldwide alliance of maritime workers to defend our jobs from corporations who want to see us extinct comes directly from ILA President Harold J. Daggett. He has dedicated 59 years of his life to the ILA.

As a third-generation dockworker from the Port of New York and New Jersey, with sons who represent the fourth generation of ILA membership, President Daggett knows firsthand the importance of protecting opportunity across generations. His mission is clear: to ensure that current and future ILA members are afforded the same work opportunities that he, his father, and his grandfather had before him.

This conference will be the opening chapter of a new struggle. It might be a new chapter, but it is not new to longshore workers. Our Union took a massive hit with containerization in the 1960s and 70s, and we refuse to take a similar hit again. We have learned from our rich history, and we are more prepared than ever to fight back.

Dockworkers around the world recognize this as urgent, historic, and unavoidable.

A Union Forged in Struggle

We often remind ourselves that the ILA had not gone on strike since 1977. Yet on October 1st, 2024, we stood together in a coastwide strike. For many, strikes mean hardship and isolation. But not this time.

This strike brought our union together. From every walk of life, members stood shoulder to shoulder on the picket line, not only fighting for a stronger contract but for a better life for our families and communities.

It is also important to remember what happened during that strike. The ILA and its top leadership came under attack from mainstream media, which attempted to turn public opinion against us. But rather than weakening our resolve, these attacks had the opposite effect. They drew the ILA family even closer, made us more protective of one another, and reminded us that our strength is found in unity.

A Deeper Mission

As my colleague and brother Jordi Aragunde put it: “Our fight goes far beyond a single journey. It is rooted in something much deeper: a lifelong mission to defend port workers across the planet. This is not just about jobs. It is about dignity. About the right to exist, to belong, and to build a future for our families and our communities.”

That mission is what drives us. It is why we cannot ignore the biggest threat facing workers today: automation.

The False Promise of Automation

Jordi Aragunde has seen firsthand what automation really means. During his visit to the Shandong region of China, he witnessed not just machines but a vision for a future where workers no longer exist.

• Fully automated container terminals with no dockers, only machines.
• Car terminals where automatic shuttles move vehicles across the yards.

It was clean. It was quiet. It was soulless.

That is not progress. That is erasure. A future where workers and everything we stand for simply disappear.

Corporations, hedge funds, and shipping lines dream of this because capital always wants more. More profit. Fewer responsibilities. No humanity.

What We Have That They Don’t

But they underestimate us. Because we carry something automation never will:

• Dignity
• History
• Pride
• Solidarity
• Judgment and Adaptability: A skilled longshore worker can make split-second decisions in unpredictable conditions, something no programmed machine can do.
• Experience and Knowledge: Generations of dockworkers carry an instinctive understanding of the docks, cargo, and equipment that cannot be coded into an algorithm.
• Safety and Vigilance: Humans can sense danger, spot problems before they happen, and act to protect one another. Machines cannot “care” about safety.
• Problem-Solving in Real Time: When equipment fails or cargo shifts, workers adjust, improvise, and fix it on the spot. Machines simply break.
• Community and Humanity: Dockworkers support each other, raise families, and pass down traditions. Robots have no roots, no pride, and no future to defend.

And above all, we have the will to fight for who we are.

If you feel rage when you see these attacks, if you know in your heart that losing these jobs means losing our very identity, then you are with us. If you believe in a future for dockers, for our ports, for our families, then you know this fight is yours too.

The Struggle Ahead

The world applauds “modernization” while ignoring the truth. Corporations are laying off experienced workers and replacing them with younger hires at lower wages. Blue-collar jobs are being destroyed by automation. White-collar jobs are being stripped away by artificial intelligence. What does this mean for our economy? For our communities? For the dignity of work itself?

Technology can and should assist us. But it should never replace us. Maritime workers are uniting against corporate greed, not just to defend our jobs but to secure peace, stability, and opportunity for future generations.

This struggle is real. But if we are together, it is impossible to fail!

Because when dockworkers unite, history shows only one outcome: we win….

Submitted by: Dennis A. Daggett