Vice President Kamala Harris got here out in help of the nation’s putting dockworkers Wednesday, casting the work stoppage that shut down ports from Maine to Texas as a battle for “fairness.”
“Foreign-owned shipping companies have made record profits and executive compensation has grown,” the Democratic presidential nominee mentioned in a assertion. “The Longshoremen, who play a vital role transporting essential goods across America, deserve a fair share of these record profits.”
Tens of hundreds of staff walked off the job Tuesday morning amid a contract dispute with port employers. Their union, the Worldwide Longshoremen’s Affiliation, is looking for vital raises and protections in opposition to automation in a brand new six-year deal. A chronic strike may find yourself squeezing the economic system simply because the November election approaches, placing Harris and President Joe Biden’s administration in a tough spot.
However up to now, the White Home has resisted calls to intervene within the dispute and drive staff again on the job within the identify of nationwide safety. Biden has mentioned he believes within the collective bargaining course of and that the 2 sides must kind out their variations on the negotiating desk.
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI by way of Getty Photographs
On Wednesday, Harris used the strike as a possibility to spotlight how she’s completely different from her GOP opponent, former President Donald Trump, who was hostile to unions all through his time within the White Home.
“Donald Trump … wants to pull us back to a time before workers had the freedom to organize,” she mentioned. “As President, he blocked overtime benefits for millions of workers, he appointed union busters to the NLRB [National Labor Relations Board] – and just recently, he said striking workers should be fired.”
The latter was a reference to a current chat Trump had on X, previously Twitter, along with his supporter Elon Musk, the social media platform’s proprietor. The previous president praised Musk because the form of man who would fireplace strikers, which is usually unlawful. (The 2 males laughed.)
“The Longshoremen, who play a vital role transporting essential goods across America, deserve a fair share of these record profits.”
– Vice President Kamala Harris
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Harris can be appropriate that, as president, Trump appointed anti-union officers to the NLRB who made it tougher for staff to arrange.
He additionally watered down a reform by his predecessor, Barack Obama, in order that thousands and thousands fewer staff would have additional time protections once they work greater than 40 hours in every week. (If Trump wins in November, he may as soon as once more undermine a progressive additional time reform, this time issued by Biden.)
Most main labor unions have endorsed the Harris marketing campaign, excluding the Worldwide Brotherhood of Teamsters, which declined to again both candidate. A number of labor historians lately advised HuffPost that they take into account Biden’s administration to be probably the most pro-union since at the very least Franklin D. Roosevelt’s, and that Harris may construct on Biden’s legacy ought to she defeat Trump.
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