Kamala-Backed Dockworkers Union Once Walked Off Job To Protest Diversity Hiring

The International Longshoremen’s Union (ILA), which threatened to “cripple” the country with a strike last month before gaining the Biden-Harris administration’s support, once walked off the job to protest diversity hiring requirements.

Local 1 — the most coveted ILA subsidiary in the New York area, which represents well-paid “checkers,” — is 85% white. Nearly all black ILA workers are placed in Local 1233, which is nearly 86% black, according to 2020 statistics from the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor.

In 2016, the Commission took steps to rectify this racial disparity, which it felt stemmed from the union’s ties to the Italian Mafia. But when the Waterfront Commission attempted to boost racial diversity through hiring initiatives, the ILA walked off the job.

“The ILA locals went even one step further to protest the Commission’s diversity and inclusion initiatives, and engaged in an illegal work stoppage which shut down most of the Port for the better part of a day,” the Commission said in its 2018 annual report. “While no official explanation was given for the strike, the ILA Public Relations Director indicated that it was directed at the Waterfront Commission for its purported ‘interference’ in hiring.”

“The absolute control of the International Longshoremen’s Association, AFL-CIO (ILA) over hiring in the Port for over 60 years has not only led to a lack of diversity and inclusion in waterfront employment, but also to the perpetuation of criminality and corruption,” the Commission said in 2020. “For far too long, well-deserving residents of the Port’s surrounding communities were systematically denied the opportunity to work on the waterfront. Meanwhile, those who are connected to union leadership or organized crime figures are rewarded with high paying, low-show or no-work special compensation packages.”

The union’s behavior could cause problems for Vice President Kamala Harris, a racial equity advocate who went to bat for the union last month.

“This strike is about fairness. Foreign-owned shipping companies have made record profits and executive compensation has grown,” Harris said. “The Longshoremen, who play a vital role transporting essential goods across America, deserve a fair share of these record profits.”

When the Commission investigated who ordered the walkout and “who was working to circumvent our fair hiring efforts,” ILA leader Harold Daggett sued to block the investigation, the Commission said.  A federal court in New Jersey dismissed the lawsuit, but ILA appealed it. ILA lost again at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in 2019.

The ILA’s resistance to interference in its hiring practices may have to do with its mob ties. The Commission wrote that “every terminal within the Port still has special compensation packages given to certain ILA longshore workers, the majority of whom are white males connected to organized crime figures or union leadership. Based on the industry’s reported figures, the Commission has again identified over 590 individuals who collectively received over $147.6 million dollars last year in outsized salaries, or for hours they never worked.”

Daggett, who earns nearly $1 million annually, did not respond to a Daily Wire inquiry about the union’s diversity issues.

In 2005, Daggett was indicted on racketeering charges that alleged mob ties, but he was acquitted after a co-defendant, alleged Genovese capo Larry Ricci, disappeared during the trial and was found dead in the trunk of a car. Daggett was elevated to international president in 2011.

The Daily Wire reported on extensive evidence that the ILA union is closely intertwined with the mob, occasionally putting relatives of imprisoned members with mob ties on the union payroll.

RELATED: Auditors Found 18% Of Longshoremen’s Union Hires Had Mob Ties. The Union Had The Auditor Shut Down.