A.G. Gancarski
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.”
11 comments
Bobblehead Kammy
October 2, 2024 at 1:47 pm
He’s exactly right when it comes to the hurricane cleanup and supply effort. The union boss making 750k should suspend the strike in Florida, especially Jacksonville and Tampa ports.
The blue wave is coming!
October 2, 2024 at 2:06 pm
Always someone else’s fault especially the federal government. Doesn’t stop Rhonda from taking the federal funds and passing it off as state projects. If Trump had his way, they’d all be gone “every one of you is gone”. Let’s bring the United States economy to a complete halt and destruction. Sounds good.
Knut Schoell
October 2, 2024 at 2:35 pm
“The blue wave is. . .complete halt and destruction. Sounds good.” All that’s missing is your passionate defense of free pot and abortion.
Democrats in a nutshell.
Kim Stroman
October 3, 2024 at 12:11 pm
Shame on you. Be very careful what you wish for.
MHDuuuval
October 3, 2024 at 2:40 pm
ILA has 85,000 members nationally and some 1800 at JaxPort, so being president of ILA is a big job and should be well paid. Its members who get full-time status are well remunerated, have good benefits, and don’t need a college degree.
In any case, the ILA president today started out as a dockworker in Newark, NJ, and worked his way up. Let’s compare that journey to newbie millionaires in the financial industries, such as Mr. Vance. Which has actually earned the money they are paid?
MHDuuuval
October 2, 2024 at 11:32 pm
Those businesses dependent on ocean carriers knew this was probably going to happen months ago and ordered accordingly. A week or so of strike is not going to harm them, or anyone else.
If it goes longer, that will begin to hurt. But, this is the point of a strike — to encourage capital and management to disgorge some of their exorbitant profits (800 percent since the pandemic by one account) and, in this case, to protect existing human jobs from being reflexively replaced by machines.
Tom Palmer
October 4, 2024 at 3:49 pm
he is tardy to the party
MHDuuuval
October 4, 2024 at 11:34 pm
He just wants to be on the side that’s winning at the moment.
Andy
October 5, 2024 at 7:46 am
This is why he will never be president. He can’t even fake it when comes to working Floridians. The strike is over for now and the ILA members got the raises they deserve, just like the auto workers and the gains being made by striking hotel workers across the country . Workers can no longer rely on politicians to bail them out! The working class has to stand up and fight for their fair share of the pie and at the end of the day the corporations will still be rich just a little less!
Joe
October 8, 2024 at 9:55 am
Tiny D: “Waaah”
Time for another diaper change.
Rude Eye
October 10, 2024 at 4:48 pm
What do you expect from a union Buster?
Comments are closed.