(The Hill) — Vice President Kamala Harris voiced her support Wednesday for striking port workers while bashing her rival former President Donald Trump after tens of thousands of longshoremen at ports along the East Coast and Gulf of Mexico walked off the job.
“This strike is about fairness. Foreign-owned shipping companies have made record profits and executive compensation has grown. The Longshoremen, who play a vital role transporting essential goods across America, deserve a fair share of these record profits,” Harris said in a statement.
She quickly turned to Trump, saying he “wants to pull us back to a time before workers had the freedom to organize,” arguing that he makes “empty promises” to workers but “never delivers.”
The United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) and the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) failed to reach a new labor agreement by the deadline on Tuesday, leading to the first strike by the port workers’ union in nearly 50 years.
The union has demanded wage increases and a total ban on the automation of cranes, gates and container-moving trucks. The USMX said Monday evening that it had “traded counteroffers related to wages” with the ILA.
Harris, in her statement, repeated a line from her rallies, saying Trump cares more about skyscraper owners than the workers who built the buildings. And, she touted the PRO Act, which is the pro-labor legislation that President Joe Biden has also called for Congress to pass.
“He thinks our economy should only work for those who own the big skyscrapers, not those who actually build them,” Harris said, referring to Trump. “As President, I will have workers’ backs and finally pass the PRO Act. And I will fight for an opportunity economy — where every person has the chance not just to get by but to get ahead.”
Biden on Tuesday called for the striking workers to get an increase in wages, urging USMX to come to the table and present an offer to the workers that ensures they are paid fairly.
The strike raises political obstacles for Biden and Harris and has real consequences for the U.S. and international economy, costing as much as $5 billion per day and impacting both exports and imports.