Gov. DeSantis lashes out at longshoremen strike

Gov. Ron DeSantis contends that the rights of port workers to strike for better wages and job protections are secondary to the needs of people recovering from Hurricane Helene.

Speaking in Madeira Beach on Wednesday, the Governor of Florida blasted the International Longshoremen’s Union for its work stoppage that would keep goods from overseas offshore until their terms are met.

“Now is not the time,” DeSantis declared.

The union wants a 77% pay raise over six years, while the U.S. Maritime Alliance only wants to go up 50%. DeSantis thinks the dockworkers need to abandon their negotiating positions and get back to work.

“I think it’s totally unacceptable to try to intentionally deprive people of the supplies. They need to be able to rebuild their homes when they have been displaced at a natural disaster,” DeSantis argued.

“The federal government should be doing all they can to make sure all the supplies continue to come in here unabated and there is the prospect of things that are critical for the rehabbing and recovery of here and other parts of Florida that may get hung up in some of this work stoppage.”

Lengthy delays, he added, would be “intolerable” given the “emergency situation in our country, not just in Florida, but in Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee in particular.”

“We should be doing all we can as Americans to make sure that the supplies are continuing to be delivered to our ports and delivered to where they need to be so that they can get put into practice,” DeSantis added. “So I’m committed to pulling whatever levers I can to make sure that that happens.”

In a rare show of political unity, both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump have asserted the right to strike by workers. Biden noted their work during the pandemic, while Trump observed that domestic workers are often in the service of “foreign flag vessels.”

The Governor doesn’t see it their way, putting pressure on Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

“I think it would be a really, really bad look for the Biden-Harris administration to allow supplies to just be sitting in the Atlantic Ocean just on ships that are just idling when you have people, not just here in Pinellas County, but up our entire Gulf coast and the Big Bend, who need it. So it is a concern. It’s not something that will be good if they allow this to happen and I’ll do whatever I can to avert it.”