More and more union workers are speaking out against the Trump tariffs as the pain becomes more real.
“A union representing West Coast dock workers has decried President Donald Trump‘s tariffs as a ‘direct attack on the working class,’ and said that the duties have already begun to damage critical sectors of the U.S. economy.
Newsweek has reached out to the U.S. Trade Representative via email for comment outside of business hours.
The president’s trade policies, both the recent reciprocal tariffs and previous measures targeting metals and auto imports, have received support from many unions, which have praised them as necessary to amend global trade balances and increase the competitiveness of domestic industry.
However, there is growing discontent among the sectors likely to feel the impacts of the drastic increase in import taxes and rising prices, with the logistics sector the latest to claim that the tariffs will wreak havoc on their industry and the economy at large.
‘We demand fair trade policies that put working class Americans first, protect jobs, and reduce taxes on the American people, not trade policies dictated by a president’s whims,’ the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) said in a policy statement.
‘The ILWU stands strong in the fight for fair trade policies that protect American workers and sustain economic growth. We refuse to accept policies that destroy jobs, inflate costs, and sell out the working class. We call on every worker, every union, and every person who believes in economic justice to stand with us against these Trump tariffs.’
In its statement, the ILWU said that the tariffs on Chinese imports, recently raised to 145 percent, had instigated ‘a de facto trade war’ between the world’s two largest economies, and warned that this will impact the ‘hundreds of thousands of jobs’ connected to global trade.
West Coast ports have already witnessed a dramatic decline in shipments from Asia as a result of the tariffs. According to a recent study by maritime research platform Sea-Intelligence, the number of canceled voyages booked for the period April 14 to May 11 rose from the equivalent of approximately 60,000 containers in late March to 367,800 in the second week of April.”
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