President-elect Donald Trump voiced support for the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) in their battle with U.S. East and Gulf Coast port operators over equipment automation, in a post on social media platform Truth Social December 12. The New York Times said Trump’s intervention could help the union win concessions, and avoid the resumption of a strike that was suspended in October.

In the online post, Trump said that he had met with ILA. leaders and was sympathetic to their concerns.“I’ve studied automation, and know just about everything there is to know about it,” he wrote. “The amount of money saved is nowhere near the distress, hurt, and harm it causes for American Workers, in this case, our Longshoremen.”The Times said that unions across the labor movement are watching the port dispute to gauge how supportive the Trump may be of workers in his second term.

The United States Maritime Alliance, Ltd. (USMX), which represents the longshoremen’s’ employers, said in a statement released in response December 12 that it looked forward to working with the President-elect and the incoming administration on collaborating to support the strength and resilience of the U.S. supply chain.

“We appreciate and value President-elect Trump’s statement on the importance of American ports. It’s clear President-elect Trump, USMX, and the ILA all share the goal of protecting and adding good-paying American jobs at our ports,” the statement continued. “But this contract goes beyond our ports – it is about supporting American consumers and giving American businesses access to the global marketplace – from farmers, to manufacturers, to small businesses, and innovative start-ups looking for new markets to sell their products.”

Read More: Can U.S. Ports Find Middle Ground on Automation Before Second Strike?

ILA workers went on a short but crippling strike in October and, after securing a large wage increase, agreed to go back to work until January 15. The two sides said they would to try to reach an agreement on automation and other issues by that date, but talks currently appear to be at an impasse, with the ILA and USMX, after initially refusing to discuss the issue of automation in public, firing separate public-statement salvos at each other in the past few weeks. 

Automation of port operations was at the heart of a dispute earlier this year between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and DP World Canada, after the terminal operator revealed plans to automate parts of its rail intermodal yard at Vancouver's Centerm Terminal. In that case, a strike was only averted after Canada's Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) ruled that a strike notice from the union was illegal. 

Going back further, port automation was a major hurdle in the eventually successful negotiations between the Pacific Maritime Association and the ILWU in the spring of 2022, as it had been as far back as 2008. A deal struck back then provided employers with the right to deploy fully mechanized and robotic-operated marine terminals. But, as these measures began to be implemented in 2019, the union balked, galvanizing large crowds to show up at Los Angeles City Hall and at harbor commission meetings to protest.