Longshoreman’s Union President Harold Daggett Slammed For His $902,000 Salary & $703,000 Salary For His Son After Strike Deal

Harold Daggett, the president of the International Longshoreman’s Association (ILA), has been criticized for his high salary and lavish lifestyle. Daggett is the head of the union striking at ports along the East and Gulf Coasts, which ended on Thursday after a tentative agreement was reached. 

The ILA has almost 50,000 union members on strike at 36 port facilities. Starting on Tuesday, the work stoppage halted the movement of most of the containerized cargo moving in and out of the U.S. It was the union’s first strike in 47 years, but Daggett joined in on the previous strike as a rank-and-file dock worker. He joined the union in 1967 after serving in the Navy in Vietnam.

“Who’s the greedy ones here,” he asked picket line members after the strike began on Tuesday. “These companies over in Europe, they don’t give a f— about us,” he stated, alluding to foreign-owned shipping lines on the opposite side of the port he was speaking at.

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“We’re going to show them; they’re going to have to give a f— about us because nothing is going to move without us,” the ILA president declared to cheers from the picket line members. “We’re going to win this f—ing thing. Trust me. They can’t survive too long. We’re going to get what the f— we deserve.”

A few hours later, he returned to the Port of New York and New Jersey in Elizabeth, New Jersey, just after dawn, flanked by his son, ILA Executive Vice President Dennis Daggett, and other ILA leaders.

He spoke to members using a bullhorn.

“If we have to be out here a month or two months, this world will collapse,” he claimed.

The union saw the recent period of record profitability for the shipping industry as an opportunity to win massive pay increases.

Industry profits increased to $400 billion from 2020 to 2023 as shipping rates soared during and after the Covid-19 pandemic.

The union could have delayed a strike until after this year’s presidential election, working under an extension. Still, the ILA would have lost bargaining leverage by delaying any work action near the end of the pre-holiday shipping season. The union believed going on strike now made sense, regardless of the political impact.

The union wanted a $5-an-hour pay increase every six years of the contract being negotiated, increasing top hourly pay by 77% beyond the contract’s life.

When the companies returned on the day before the strike with a $3-an-hour offer, which would have raised pay almost 50%, Daggett replied, “Go f— yourself.”

According to a statement from the union, there has also been increasing attention on Daggett, which has prompted harassment and death threats.

Daggett makes nearly $902,000 for positions with the ILA and one of its locals, which is far more than many of his counterparts. 

Dennis earns $703,000 from the ILA and the same local.

A debate over Daggett’s salary has raged on social media. One user wrote: “Looks like Harold Daggett can afford to strike. He was paid a $728,000 salary by the ILA in 2023, as well as $173,000 from 1804-1! Is he negotiating for the people or fighting to keep his massive salary?”

The ILA said criticism of their president was an effort to make the union cave into its demands, adding that she is “sickened by these attempts to attack his professional accomplishments as a union leader and destroy the life he has built for him and his family.”

It has been a good year for unions. In September 2023, United Auto Workers won significant raises from U.S. automakers GM and Stellantis after a strike.

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