Trump appears to back US dockworkers in stalled anti-automation talks

US President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday appeared to back the anti-automation stance of some 45,000 union dockworkers on the US East and Gulf Coasts, whose labor talks are at an impasse over that polarizing issue.

The ILA and the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) employer group are facing a January 15 deadline to finalize talks, which stalled over cargo-handling automation. That deadline comes just five days before Trump's inauguration.

The ILA says automation kills jobs while employers say it is necessary to keep US ports competitive in a rapidly changing global economy.

"The amount of money saved is nowhere near the distress, hurt, and harm it causes for American Workers, in this case, our Longshoremen," Trump said of automation projects in a post on Truth Social. That message followed a meeting with Harold Daggett, who leads the International Longshoremen's Association union that represents the port workers, Trump said.

The two sides agreed to end a three-day strike on October 3 after the union won a 62 per cent wage hike over six years with significant involvement by the White House and other officials from President Joe Biden's administration.

Employers, which include the US operations of Switzerland's Mediterranean Shipping Company, Denmark's Maersk and China's COSCO Shipping, have been booking record profits in part due to access to US markets, Trump said on Thursday.

"I'd rather these foreign companies spend it on the great men and women on our docks, than machinery, which is expensive, and which will constantly have to be replaced," Trump said of the industry's profit.

"It's clear President-elect Trump, USMX, and the ILA all share the goal of protecting and adding good-paying American jobs at our ports," USMX said in a statement.

"We need modern technology that is proven to improve worker safety, boost port efficiency, increase port capacity, and strengthen our supply chains," the employers said, adding that dockworkers make more money when seaports move more goods.

(Reporting by Eric Beech in Washington and Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles; Editing by Jasper Ward and Bill Berkrot)