Biden NLRB Decision Puts Hundreds of Port Jobs in Jeopardy
In 2024, International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) union bosses and their Big Labor allies cheered when the South Carolina State Ports Authority (SPA) caved in to then-President Joe Biden and his radical National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) appointees.
Facing a lawless secondary boycott of its $1.2 billion Henry K. Leatherman Port Terminal in Charleston and an NLRB as well as a federal judiciary who were unwilling to bring it to a halt, the Ports Authority agreed to put all front-line jobs at the terminal under union monopoly control.
Formerly Nonunion Workers Now Have to Submit to Union Domination, or Lose Their Jobs
Prior to this, a “hybrid” system had been in place at port terminals in Charleston as well as in Wilmington, N.C., and Savannah, Ga., with union dock workers working side by side with roughly 270 union-free state employees.
Under the new regime, formerly nonunion Leatherman workers now have to submit to union domination, or lose their jobs.
Union-only control over Leatherman has come at a high price, including significantly higher costs for shippers and lost jobs as well as loss of independence for port employees. On August 1, the terminal suspended operations.
Increased Volume Can’t Fix Big Labor-Generated Problem
National Right to Work Committee President Mark Mix explained:
“Shipping lines that initially avoided Leatherman in order to avoid being sued by power-hungry ILA bosses continued to avoid the terminal even after Big Labor’s secondary boycott was lifted.
“The reason is clear. Inefficient work rules and other burdens that ILA bigwigs were able to foist on Leatherman after it became union-only make it far more expensive to move a container there than at the SPA’s Wando Welch and North Charleston Terminals.
“As Charleston Post and Courier Business Editor John McDermott reported, the Ports Authority was charging ship operators an extra $17.95 ‘for every container’ that comes through Leatherman to ‘offset the change in the labor model cost structure.’ Even at that, the terminal was operating at a loss.
“Shippers’ unwillingness to pay jacked-up fees they could avoid simply by docking at Wando Welch or North Charleston is undoubtedly the key reason why Leatherman was operating at barely more than 10% of capacity prior to being put into dormancy this summer.
“Some clueless establishment media reporters have tried to attribute the Leatherman shutdown to slow business, but the reality is that each additional container increased the SPA’s losses instead of reducing them.
“As state Sen. Larry Grooms [R-Berkeley County] has tersely put it, ‘This is one that volume won’t fix. Volume makes it worse.’”
Hundreds of Carolina Port Jobs May Be Permanently Lost
As this Newsletter edition goes to press in late July, the SPA still hasn’t said what will happen to the jobs of the hundreds of port workers who have operated out of Leatherman.
“To a great extent,” commented Mr. Mix, “the survival of the front-line jobs at Leatherman may depend on whether or not the ILA union hierarchy is willing to lighten work-rule and other burdens they have imposed on the terminal.
“Unfortunately, Big Labor’s track record of making job-saving decisions in situations akin to the one South Carolina ILA bosses now face has historically not been good.
“If I were a Leatherman dockworker, I certainly wouldn’t count on Longshore Union bosses to show any flexibility to save my job.”
Committee Staff, Friendly Lawmakers Working Together On a Legislative Solution
“Of course, if Biden NLRB appointees, along with the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals panel that enabled them, hadn’t gutted the nearly 80-year-old ban on secondary boycotts in U.S. labor law, Leatherman workers would not be in this predicament now,” added Mr. Mix.
“Fortunately, Congress could still pass legislation correcting the Biden NLRB.”
National Right to Work legislative staffers are now inviting friendly lawmakers from the Palmetto State and elsewhere to meet to discuss a statutory remedy for the Biden NLRB’s misbegotten ruling in SPA v. ILA. The recent Leatherman shutdown only underscores the importance of undoing this error.
This article was originally published in our monthly newsletter. Go here to access previous newsletter posts.
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