Trump signals support for US dockworkers in stalled labor talks

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday appeared to back the anti-automation stance of some 45,000 union dockworkers on the U.S. East and Gulf Coasts, whose labor talks are at an impasse over that polarizing issue.

The ILA and the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) employer group are facing a Jan. 15 deadline to finalize talks, which stalled over automation. That cutoff comes just five days before Trump's inauguration.

The ILA says automation kills jobs while employers say it is necessary to keep U.S. ports competitive in a rapidly changing global economy.

"The amount of money saved is nowhere near the distress, hurt, and harm it causes for American Workers, in this case, our Longshoremen," Trump said of automation projects in a post on Truth Social. That message followed a meeting with Harold Daggett, who leads the International Longshoremen's Association union that represents the port workers, Trump said.

The union and employers agreed to end a three-day strike on Oct. 3 after the union won a 62% wage hike over six years with significant involvement by the White House and other officials from President Joe Biden's administration.

Employers, which include the U.S. operations of Switzerland's Mediterranean Shipping Company, Denmark's Maersk and China's COSCO Shipping, have been booking record profits in part due to access to U.S. markets, Trump said on Thursday.

"I'd rather these foreign companies spend it on the great men and women on our docks, than machinery, which is expensive, and which will constantly have to be replaced," Trump said.

ILA President Daggett thanked Trump for his support in a separate message in which union Vice President Dennis Daggett also said he hoped Trump's message would encourage USMX to remove any language on automated or semi-automated equipment in their proposals moving forward.

"It's clear President-elect Trump, USMX, and the ILA all share the goal of protecting and adding good-paying American jobs at our ports," USMX said in a statement.

"We need modern technology that is proven to improve worker safety, boost port efficiency, increase port capacity, and strengthen our supply chains," the employers said, adding that dockworkers make more money when seaports handle more goods.

(Reporting by Eric Beech in Washington and Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles; Editing by Jasper Ward, Bill Berkrot and Michael Perry)