Roughly 25,000 striking dockworkers at ports along the East and Gulf Coasts of the U.S. are rallying for higher pay and stronger guardrails against their jobs being automated out of existence. 

Members of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA), a union representing the dockworkers, walked off the job Tuesday for the first time in nearly 50 years as they push for “the kind of wages we deserve,” ILA President Harold Daggett said in a social media post on Tuesday. 

Those wages, union officials argue, should factor in the torrid inflation that eroded dockworkers’ paychecks under their now lapsed labor contract with the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX), which represents ports and ocean carriers. As the industry profits, longshore workers “continue to be crippled by inflation due to USMX’s unfair wage packages,” the ILA said in a statement. 

How much do longshoremen make?

Only workers at 14 East and Gulf Coast port are on strike; West Coast longshoremen are represented by a different union, which negotiated significant wage increases for its members in 2023. ILA members earn significantly less than their peers on the other side of the country. 

Pay for longshoremen is based on their years of experience. Under the ILA’s former contract with USMX, which expired on Monday, starting pay for dockworkers was $20 per hour. That rose to $24.75 per hour after two years on the job and to $31.90 after three years, topping out at $39 for workers with at least six years of service. 

The union is demanding a 77% raise over six years, or the equivalent of a $5 increase in pay for each year of the contract. Under the union’s proposal, workers would make $44 for the first year of the contract, $49 for the second and up to $69 in its final year. 

“I think this work group has a lot of bargaining power,” said Harry Katz, a professor of collective bargaining at Cornell University. “They’re essential workers that can’t be replaced, and also the ports are doing well.”

What’s a typical annual salary?

That top-tier hourly wage of $39 amounts to just over $81,000 annually, but dockworkers make significantly more by taking on extra shifts. For example, according to a 2019-20 annual report from the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor, about one-third of local longshoremen made $200,000 or more a year. 

A more typical longshoreman’s salary can exceed $100,000, but not without logging substantial overtime hours. Daggett, the ILA president, maintains that these higher earners work up to 100 hours a week. 

Across the industry, including in non-union jobs, pay for some dockworkers can be far more modest at around $53,000 a year, according to job site Indeed.

Late Monday, USMX said its latest offer would boost dockworkers’ wages by nearly 50%, triple employer contributions to employee retirement plans and enhance health care coverage, while also preserving existing safeguards against automation.

contributed to this report.