Joseph Richardson Discusses Dockworkers’ Right to Preserve the Work of Union Members

An ongoing dispute between the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and the South Carolina Ports Authority will not be taken up by the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2021, the ILA, which represents port workers on the East Coast, sued the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX), an industry group of shippers and other maritime employers. The longshoremen’s association claimed the maritime alliance broke its agreement with the union when two shippers used the Leatherman Terminal and its nonunion workers.

South Carolina responded by filing charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), claiming the suit was an attempt to force the Ports Authority to use union workers and was therefore in violation of the National Labor Relations Act’s prohibition of secondary boycotts. The NLRB sided with the ILA, saying the suit did not violate labor law because the union’s primary aim was to preserve its jurisdiction over work at East Coast ports. A Fourth Circuit ruling upheld the NLRB’s decision.

Willig, Williams & Davidson partner Joseph Richardson, who represented ILA Local 1422, the local union whose workers are affected by this decision, is quoted in an article in Law360 about the implications of the Supreme Court declining this case. Richardson said the court recognized the longstanding principle under the NLRA that unions have the right to take actions to preserve work that their members historically have done.

“In this age of emergent AI and the attendant disruption of workplace norms across all sectors, the work preservation doctrine has never been more important,” Richardson said. “This decision reaffirms the continuing validity of this important right held by unionized workers.”

Read the full article online: Justices Won’t Hear Fight Over Limits On Port Labor Protests (Subscription is required.)