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It’s rare when a politician scores a big win for workers and doesn’t brag about it from the rooftops. Blustering hyperbole from former President Donald Trump has made it seem like everything needs to be shouted and every win needs to be politically motivated.
Sometimes, politicians just do their jobs, like how Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg recently handled a dockworkers strike that threatened to logjam goods coming in for consumers from various East coast and Gulf ports. Like Erin Brockovich, Buttigieg came through for the people and scored a big win for dockworkers.
The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) went on strike on Oct. 1, the organizations biggest walkout since 1977. The agreement came at a pivotal time; holiday season is approaching and retailers like Target and Walmart would have been detrimentally affected by it as those stores gear up for a busy season. Perishable goods like bananas were also at risk of spoiling during the strike. About 45,000 workers asked for higher pay, job security and protections against automation. The agreement between the ILA and the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) was that wages would increase 62% over a six-year period.
Buttigieg said the increase for the workers had been “a long time coming. They come after a decades-long stretch of widening inequality in our country, and they come at a time that these companies have become enormously profitable.”
Speaking for the workers, the secretary said he didn’t think “the big problem in this country right now is workers making too much money or working conditions for workers being too good.”
Perhaps what stands out the most about the agreement is how it was done quickly and cleanly. There was no posturing, no yelling at a rally, no credit stealing and self-aggrandizing. It was a politician doing what they were supposed to do without all that other stuff that goes along with it. The deal is a huge win for the administration of President Joe Biden, who’s proving that just because he’s nearing the end of his term, he has no intention of becoming a lame duck president.
About three-fifths of merchandise goes through the ports, which include the New Jersey port and Port of New York. Ports in Texas, Virginia and Georgia were also affected. While the ports remained open, the workers did not clear them, and most were at or nearly at capacity when the strike was resolved.
“Well, because it was ended in about three days, I think most consumers will not notice something like being unable to get goods that they were expecting,” Buttigieg said. “But I will say it takes more than one day’s work to figure out the backlog from one day’s stoppage.” A politician concerned about how the issue will affect someone other than himself. Imagine that.