Defending Dockworkers Master Agreement in SC
Channel: Union of Southern Service Workers
Date: 2023-07-14

TODAY 100s of dockworkers with ILA Union, SC AFL-CIO and service workers rally outside the SC Statehouse to demand Gov Henry McMaster stop attempts to break the “Master Contract,” an agreement obligating port authorities to employ UNION LABOR at docks across the US. 

This Master Contract has been signed by the Longshoremen’s unions in every international port between Maine to Texas. The only challenge to the Master Contract is by SC Governor Henry McMaster. The agreement ensures all goods loaded and unloaded at ports are done by unionized workers. 

Charleston SC’s newly-constructed Hugh Leatherman Terminal has sat unused for months b/c of McMaster’s attempts to break the agreement.

Unionized dockworkers with ILA Union Local 1422 are the backbone of Charleston’s Black middle class, earning excellent wages and benefits – in contrast w/ millions of other service workers in SC and across the South. SC has the lowest % of unionized workers in the country (1.7%).

By attempting to break the Master Agreement, Gov McMaster and other anti-union politicians are attempting to eliminate one of the last remaining bastions of unionized labor in South Carolina. But workers are not backing down; instead, workers are STEPPING UP.

Dockworkers are demanding the same pay and working conditions for all current and future dockworkers in South Carolina and throughout the nation. We will NOT let corrupt politicians prevent workers from getting basic dignity and respect. #OrganizetheSouth #UnionsforAll