As a local president of the International Longshoreman Association (ILA), representing the men and women who work at the port of Wilmington, I want to make very clear why our port needs to expand and why we can’t allow people from outside Delaware to take away jobs that depend on Delaware’s maritime economy.
I have worked on the Delaware waterfront for over 40 years, and I am the third generation of my family to do so. I am not alone. For a hundred years, the port has provided high paying jobs for thousands of families.
Today, the average salary of a maritime worker in the United States is almost $100,000. Most longshoreman do not have the benefit of college, and some don’t have high school diplomas. These are jobs that are not easily replaced; the kind of jobs we need to grow in an inclusive economy that helps everyone succeed.
But our jobs are in jeopardy. Our port is old and increasingly obsolete for the new containerized cargo carried on larger ships that Wilmington cannot handle. As we become less competitive, new and existing businesses will go elsewhere, and many jobs will go away. For us, this isn’t a political squabble in Dover. We are fighting for our future.
That’s why the legislature pushed for port expansion a decade ago. And that’s why Governor Markell and Governor Carney supported port expansion, including providing $195 million in state funds to go along with federal and private investments to build a new $560 million container port at Edgemoor, just north of the existing port.
Building a new container port will employ thousands of trades people in Delaware who are currently unemployed. Thousands more jobs will be created when the port opens, and the jobs at the current port will be more secure. What could be better?
But for years, efforts to expand the port and save our jobs has been opposed by port operators further north on the Delaware River in Philadelphia.
These are the outsiders we are worried about. They are the ones trying to stop us from expanding, just as they have done in the past, most recently when the river channel was deepened for larger ships.
This time, they have sued us in state and federal court to prevent the Edgemoor port from being built by trying to take away permits that took three years to acquire. They have hired a swarm of expensive lawyers and lobbyists to help them. All to stifle competition and prevent more jobs from coming to Delaware.
To be honest, these same outsiders were contributors to the governor’s campaign and celebrated with him at his inauguration. The ILA, one the Delaware’s most significant employers, was left out.
We want to work with the administration, and we have invited the governor to meet with us, but we need a lot more than vague promises to “support the port”. We need a real commitment for port expansion and real action to back it up. And we need transparency about what the administration has been doing that will impact on our jobs.
Rather than allowing outsiders from Pennsylvania to hold us back, Delaware should control its own destiny, and the governor should lead the way. Thousands of working Delaware families are counting on us to do the right thing.
William Ashe, Jr. is a nominee for the Diamond State Port Corporation and President of the local International Longshoreman Association.
