International Longshoremen’s Association Statement on the Supreme Court’s Denial of the South Carolina State Ports Authority’s Petition for Writ of Certiorari

NORTH BERGEN, NJ – The International Longshoremen’s Association (“ILA”) is extremely pleased the Supreme Court of the United States denied the South Carolina State Port Authority’s (South Carolina’s) petition for certiorari. In doing so, the Court has recognized that the ILA—and other labor unions—have the same right as any American citizen to use the court system to sue when a valid contractual promise has been broken. In this case the ILA sued their employers to enforce contractual promises made in the “Master Contract” which covers all longshore, maintenance, and clerical jobs related to shipping containers and container vessels at marine terminals in ports on the entire coastline from Maine to Texas. In 2021 the employers broke their promise to only give container work to ILA-represented longshore workers, when they decided to give some container work to an employer that employed non-union workers. So the ILA sued them in a New Jersey court for breach of contract.

At that point, South Carolina inserted itself into the dispute by arguing to the National Labor Relations Board that the ILA was legally prohibited from suing its own employers to enforce its own contract. South Carolina’s arguments were more motivated by politics than any valid business or legal rationale. South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster has recently stated that he intends to fight all labor unions “to the gates of hell.” The Board rejected South Carolina’s political arguments, and the Board’s decision was upheld by the United States Court of Appeal for the Fourth Circuit in Baltimore.

In a last-ditch attempt to undermine the collective bargaining agreement that covers all East and Gulf Coast ports, South Carolina sought to bring its argument to the Supreme Court. Today the Court rejected South Carolina’s attempt to use the Court for political posturing.

In denying certiorari, the Supreme Court recognized that the ILA’s employers—and other employers—simply cannot walk away from their contractual promises. This decision will benefit all ILA workers and will allow them to enforce their contract. The Master Contract has benefited the waterfront industry on the East and Gulf Coast for over seventy years. The Supreme Court evidently understood that it made no sense to disrupt collective bargaining on the entire East and Gulf Coast just to satisfy the anti-union feeling of some politicians in South Carolina.