How much do dockworkers make? Here is the pay raise they secured in tentative new deal.
Roughly 25,000 dockworkers went on strike this week at ports along the East and Gulf Coasts of the U.S. to rally for higher pay and stronger guardrails around their jobs being automated out of existence.
The strike was suspended late Thursday until January 15, with workers securing wage increases for each year of the contract, as well as protections against automation "and other issues that we need resolved," Scott Cowan, president of International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) Local 333, said in an interview with CBS News Baltimore after the deal was announced.
Under the tentative new agreement, workers will earn a 61.5% raise over six years. That means the highest paid workers would make $63 per hour in the final year of the contract — up from $39.
Members of ILA, the union representing the dockworkers, walked off the job on Tuesday for the first time in nearly 50 years to push for "the kind of wages we deserve," ILA President Harold Daggett said in a social media post on Tuesday.
Those wages, union officials argue, should factor in the torrid inflation that eroded dockworkers' paychecks under their now lapsed labor contract with the United States Maritime Alliance, known as USMX, which represents ports and ocean carriers. As the industry profits, longshore workers "continue to be crippled by inflation due to USMX's unfair wage packages," the ILA said in a statement.
Before the strike, Johnnie Dixon, president of the Fort Lauderdale chapter of the ILA, told CBS News Miami that the union's demands are justified given the soaring prices consumers have faced.
"Our members top out at $39 (per hour). We are looking for a 77%, close to 77% increase over the next seven years. When you look at the cost of inflation that's more than reasonable," he said at the time.
How much do longshoremen make?
Only workers at 14 East and Gulf Coast ports are on strike; West Coast longshoremen are represented by a different union, which negotiated significant wage increases for its members in 2023. Under the expired contract, ILA members earned significantly less than their peers on the other side of the country.
Pay for longshoremen is based on their years of experience. Under the ILA's former contract with USMX, which expired on Monday, starting pay for dockworkers was $20 per hour. That rose to $24.75 per hour after two years on the job and to $31.90 after three years, topping out at $39 for workers with at least six years of service.
The union secured a 61.5% raise over six years. Under the tentative agreement, the highest paid workers would make $63 per hour in the final year of the contract — up from $39.
"I think this work group has a lot of bargaining power," said Harry Katz, a professor of collective bargaining at Cornell University. "They're essential workers that can't be replaced, and also the ports are doing well."
The work can be demanding and grueling, too, requiring the physical strength necessary to load and unload freight in containers, and specific technical skills such as the ability to operate a crane.
What's a typical annual salary?
That top-tier hourly wage of $39 amounts to just over $81,000 annually, but dockworkers can make significantly more by taking on extra shifts. For example, according to a 2019-20 annual report from the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor, about one-third of local longshoremen made $200,000 or more a year.
A more typical longshoreman's salary can exceed $100,000, but not without logging substantial overtime hours. Daggett, the ILA president, maintains that these higher earners work up to 100 hours a week.
For his part, Daggett made $728,694 in 2023 as ILA president and an additional $173,040 as president emeritus of the mechanics local chapter at Port Newark in New Jersey, according to documents filed with the Department of Labor.
Daggett's son, Dennis Daggett, heads the New Jersey local his father once led and is now ILA executive vice president, roles that netted him total income of more than $700,000 in 2023.
Across the industry, including in nonunion jobs, pay for some dockworkers can be far more modest at around $53,000 a year, according to job site Indeed.