(Texas Scorecard) – Houston Mayor John Whitmire joined the International Longshoremen’s Association at the Bayport Container Terminal on the first day of the dock worker’s strike, saying, “I’m here in a show of solidarity… to have the mayor of the great City of Houston standing on the picket line with people that have made Houston the great city, the great port that it is.”
“I’ve been a public official working with organized labor for fifty years, quite frankly, they’ve helped raise me, shape me, model me,” he said. “So I can be, as your mayor, at a hundred locations right now, but this is where I wanted to be, this is where I need to be… you’re really showing some of the other locals and affiliated groups how you go about organizing and standing in solidarity.”
He closed by saying, “Every one of you is a public servant, whether you’re ever on the ballot or not, you’re a public servant and someday we’re going to be judged with what you did with your public service. So let’s hang together in solidarity and let’s win this battle with those that would take advantage of us.”
Nearly 50,000 longshoremen went on strike Tuesday in the East Coast and Gulf of Mexico ports over stalled contract negotiations between the International Longerhsmen’s Association and the United States Maritime Alliance, representing the majority of shipping lines.
Despite USMX saying it offered a 50 percent wage increase over the proposed 6-year contract, tripling pension contributions, the union is demanding a 77 percent pay increase. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce urged President Biden to exercise his powers under a federal law called the Taft-Hartley Act to force ports to resume operations while negotiations took place. The National Association of Manufacturers estimates that $2.1 billion in trade is at risk every day the strike continues.
The Port of Houston is the nation’s largest port for waterborne tonnage and contributes more than $10 billion in state and local tax revenue and $62 billion in national tax revenue.
