International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) President Harold Daggett, who has suggested his organization can “cripple” the U.S. economy with its ongoing strike, was paid nearly $1 million by the union last year, according to Politico.
ILA began its major strike affecting 36 ports along the East and Gulf Coasts early Tuesday morning, raising the possibility that shortages and price increases hit inflation-weary American consumers if the work stoppage is not resolved sooner than later. Daggett, who has accused the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) of exploiting ILA labor to generate wealth, took home $901,000 from the union in 2023, Politico reported.
Daggett made $728,000 from the ILA last year and an additional $173,000 for being the president emeritus of ILA Local 1804-1, according to Politico. ILA members make approximately $81,000 in base salary, though some can make as much as $200,000 in a year if they are able to work many overtime hours, according to The Associated Press.
Daggett also owned a 76-foot yacht as of January 2017, and ILA members have spotted him driving around in a Bentley in the past, according to The New York Times.
Daggett appears to be well aware of the power he can wield by keeping 14 major ports shut down while seeking major concessions from USMX in a new contract. JPMorgan estimates that the strike could cost up to $4.5 billion per day, according to the AP, and a broad coalition of trade groups and business interests warned that a strike “would have a devastating impact on the economy” in a Sept. 17 letter to President Joe Biden.
“These people today don’t know what a strike is,” Daggett said in a video uploaded to YouTube by the union on Sept. 5. “I’ll cripple you. I will cripple you.”
Among other demands, the union wants a ban on automation to protect jobs and a substantial pay raise to make up for inflation, according to the AP. Biden could intervene to at least temporarily end the strike, though he said Sunday he does not intend to do so.
Daggett has made headlines before, having been described by the Department of Justice (DOJ) as a mafia “associate” who ascended the union’s internal hierarchy with the help of organized crime, according to The New York Times. The DOJ has brought and lost two cases against Daggett, who described himself as a victim of mafia thuggery on the witness stand in a 2005 trial during which his mobster co-defendant vanished before being discovered dead in the trunk of a car in New Jersey.
ILA did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
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