Last week, the International Longshoremen’s Association, which represents approximately 45,000 dock workers, launched a labor strike in East and Gulf Coasts ports, demanding better wages and protections from automation. After three days, the union reached a tentative agreement with the US Maritime Alliance, which represents the port and shipping companies, to increase wages by 62 percent over six years.

Compared with other supply chain workers, union dockworkers often have higher job quality, meaning they earn better wages and have greater job protection (PDF). Still, their recent strike highlights the broader challenges of wages and working conditions for essential jobs throughout our supply chain.

Longshoremen fall into a larger group of material-moving occupations, which includes jobs like packers and stockers; conveyor, crane, hoist and winch, industrial truck and tractor operators; and tank, truck, and ship loaders.

Nationally, half of workers in these occupations earn about $18 an hour or less. That’s well below $27 an hour (PDF), the wages needed to rent a modest one bedroom in an average town in the US.

But the challenges go beyond wages. In a recent analysis, we compared more than 100 occupational groups across 11 different elements of job quality. We found that the material-moving group was among the groups with the lowest-quality jobs, scoring only 3 of 11 possible points.

These supply chain occupations also tend to have longer hours, greater rates of injury and illness, less on-the-job training, lower take-up rates of employer-provided health insurance, higher unemployment rates, and less autonomy to make decisions on the job. Further, Black and Latine men are disproportionately affected by these working conditions because they are overrepresented in these occupations.

Although the union reached a tentative agreement on wage increases, the issue of how automated systems might affect dockworkers’ jobs in the future remains unresolved. Across all parts of the supply chain, these same questions about automation loom large.

Improving job quality for workers—specifically autonomy and training—could help ensure automation benefits both workers and companies. Research in other sectors shows that technology only adds value if there are empowered, well-trained workers who have the discretion and knowledge to deploy it well. Rather than replacing workers with automated systems, companies could partner with workers and use technology to make supply chain jobs safer and better. 

Looking forward, the larger challenge is how to extend the kind of job quality gains the International Longshoremen’s Association has achieved to a greater share of workers in our supply chain who aren’t covered by union contracts.