The East Coast longshoremen strike has temporarily ended thanks in part, critics say, to an intervention by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
On Thursday, the governor signed an executive order to deploy Florida’s National Guard to affected ports to resume port operations.
“At my direction, the Florida National Guard and Florida State Guard will be deployed to critical ports affected to maintain order and if possible resume operations which would otherwise be shut down during this interruption,” he said at a press conference.
“I’m also directing the Florida Department of Transportation to temporarily waive the collection of tolls and other fees for commercial vehicles using public highways in Florida and waving the size and weight restrictions normally governing vehicle transportation for the duration of this emergency,” he added.
Listen:
At my direction, the Florida National Guard and the Florida State Guard will be deployed to critical ports affected by the strike to maintain order and, where possible, resume operations.
It is unacceptable for the Biden-Harris administration to allow supply chain interruptions… pic.twitter.com/KfzVbBgI10
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) October 3, 2024
Several hours later, the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) suddenly announced that it’d reached a temporary agreement with its employer, the U.S. Maritime Alliance (USMX).
“The tentative agreement is for a wage hike of around 62% over six years,” according to Reuters. “The union and the port operators said in a statement that they would extend their master contract until Jan. 15, 2025 to return to the bargaining table to negotiate all outstanding issues.”
And so the strike will presumably resume days before Inauguration Day, which is a bit troubling. If former President Donald Trump assumes office then, chances are the left will dishonestly blame him for the strike.
Regardless, because of the timing, many suspect that DeSantis’ last-minute move played a significant role in convincing the union to stop being stubborn and start negotiating in good faith.
Look:
Gov. Ron DeSantis just ended the port workers strike. He sent the Florida National Guard to run the ports and moments later the strike ended. Gov. DeSantis is the man!!
— PAMELA HENSLEY (@PamelaHensley22) October 4, 2024
Ron DeSantis single handedly ended the dockworkers strike.
There is no coincidence this happened just hours after he opened up the ports through the Florida National Guard.
This man is a hero.
— Dustin Grage (@GrageDustin) October 3, 2024
The ports in the Tampa area are some of the busiest in the country. The minute Ron DeSantis decided to take action and replace the workers on strike, the union became more vulnerable.
Let’s stop pretending anything else led to a resolution here.
— paige s. (@PaigeSully88) October 4, 2024
Interesting how quickly the Union accepted the offer and ended the strike after Governor DeSantis deployed the National Guard to take over operations at the ports.
Almost like they don’t want people to see how little skill and training is required to do it.
— Ron Rule (@ronrule) October 4, 2024
So just like DeSantis ended COVID he ended the dockworkers strike today. No way did they want to see every ship sitting out there get unloaded in Florida ports in 1/10th of the time as usual and everything efficiently moved on our highways. DeSantis literally saved Christmas. pic.twitter.com/TjWGbrwMnv
— PhotographicFloridian (@JackLinFLL) October 3, 2024
Had the strike not ended Friday, the chances of America suffering serious economic harm would have been high.
President Joe Biden, for his part, had intended to let the strike continue unresolved, despite reports that he could have nipped it in the bud by applying the Taft-Hartley Act to force the ports to resume operating while negotiations continued.
“We have not used Taft-Hartley, and we’re not planning to,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told Fox News on Tuesday.
The reason why, critics suspect, is because Biden and, in fact, the entire Democrat Party are beholden to the corrupt unions, including the ILA.
The union’s boss is Harold Daggett, a wealthy man who owns a yacht and a Bentley, who earned over $900,000 last year, and who was once acquitted of RICO charges after the witness against him was found dead.
“In 2005, the Justice Department accused Daggett of being an ‘associate’ of the Genovese crime family – one of the ‘Five Families’ of the US Mafia,” according to the New York Post. “Daggett took the witness stand that year after federal prosecutors charged him with racketeering.”
“He described himself as a target of the mob – though a turncoat Mafia member had testified Daggett was under the mob’s thumb. … During the course of the trial, one of Daggett’s co-defendants – Lawrence Ricci, an alleged major mob figure – disappeared. His body was found weeks later decomposing in the trunk of a car outside a New Jersey diner,” the Post notes.
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