Union boss on US ports strike: 'I'm not playing games'

Harold Daggett vows union is "going to win", as Joe Biden backs "meaningful" dockworker pay rise.

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Harold Daggett, head of the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA), made the vow on a picket line in New Jersey on Tuesday, as tens of thousands of dockworkers on the east and gulf coasts walked out in a bid to win a better labour deal.

"We're going to fight for it and we're going to win or this port will never open up again," he said. "I'm not playing games here."

Businesses are bracing for the possibility of a prolonged ports shut down, which threatens to cause havoc to global trade and the US economy.

President Joe Biden has so far rebuffed calls by some of country's biggest business groups to use federal power to reopen the ports for 80 days, suspending the strike to provide a cooling-off period for further negotiation.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c78d442v3e6o

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