Striking port workers are trying to fend off the inevitable

Where it stands: "[W]e want absolute airtight language that there will be no automation or semi-automation," said International Longshoremen's Association president Harold Daggett in a statement Tuesday, the first day of the strike involving about 45,000 dockworkers.

• "We're fighting against automation," Harry Sims, the vice president of ILA Local No. 3000, told Axios' Chelsea Brasted from the picket line in New Orleans.
• The ILA is also looking for a big wage bump, arguing it deserves a share of the fatter profits shipping companies have seen since the pandemic.

Zoom in: The problem is, the union allowed for some semi-automation, with limitations, in their last contract, which expired this week.

• Here's the exact language: "There shall be no implementation of semi-automated equipment or technology/automation until both parties agree to workforce protections and staffing levels."
• There are two terminals that are semi-automated in Virginia and New Jersey. It's a small share overall — there are multiple terminals at each of the 14 ports that are striking — but it's not nothing.
• The U.S. Maritime Alliance, the group that represents the port terminals and ocean carriers in contract negotiations, has offered to keep that language in a new contract, according to a statement from September. But that's not enough for the union.

Between the lines: It's not clear how the union would want to structure provisions around automation in the new contract.

• It looks like they want to get rid of the provision that allowed for semi-automation, says Geraldine Knatz, who was the executive director of the Port of Los Angeles from 2006 to 2014.
• That might be tough to unwind, says Knatz, who's now a professor of policy and engineering at the University of Southern California. "It's pretty hard to go backward."
• Still, management and the union can work on contract provisions that offer some protections for workers so they don't simply lose their jobs to automation, she says.
• For example, guaranteeing re-training for the other kinds of jobs that the new tech creates; or some other kind of compensation.

The big picture: The move to automate ports so containers can be moved around without human intervention is the latest stage of tech advancement in the industry.

• The introduction of containers in the middle of the last century as a way to ship stuff around the world was the first big step — and even back then the International Longshoremen's Association wasn't happy about it, as the New York Times recently reported.

• Automation is inevitable, says Rick Jordon, senior managing director and co-lead of industrial and supply chain practice at FTI Consulting.

Yet, the introduction of automation technology has been slower-moving than you might think.

• Just 62 of 1,300 of global container terminals were automated or semi-automated by the end of 2021, per research conducted by Knatz and others, and published in Maritime Economics and Logistics.
• That's fast growth from the dawn of the 21st century when there were only two automated terminals, in Singapore and Rotterdam.
• Unionized workers like to point out that their jobs are dangerous — and thus deserving of higher pay. It's perhaps ironic then, that one of the big drivers of automation has been safety.

Reality check: Boosters say automation makes ports more efficient and productive. But even if it had been in place during the pandemic — that wouldn't have done much to fix problems like insufficient warehouse space and scrambled demand that led to backlogs.

• Plus, as Knatz's paper points out — tech brings its issues. If systems aren't well integrated that slows down productivity.

The bottom line: Technology may be inevitable, but there's plenty that organized labor can do to make sure the transition takes workers into account.