Fiery union boss Harold Daggett has long cast himself as a staunch advocate for blue-collar workers, even as he has lived in luxury, owning a yacht and driving a Bentley — and fought off alleged ties to the Mafia.
Sporting a polo shirt with a chunky gold medallion around his neck, the 78-year-old Daggett, who as president of the International Longshoremen’s Association is leading the port strikes stretching from Maine to Texas, was prone to theatrical flourishes in a September interview as he geared up for the strike.
“They’re gonna be like this,” Daggett said, grabbing his neck in a choking gesture. “I’ll cripple you. I will cripple you and you have no idea what that means. Nobody does.”
Since last year, Daggett has threatened to shut down the 36 ports covered by his union if “money crazy” shipping companies refused to issue wage hikes and protections for workers against industry automation.
“Who’s going to support [workers’] families? Machines? Machines don’t have families,” he previously said.
Meanwhile, Daggett — has worked at the ILA for 57 years and took the helm as president in 2011 — raked in $728,000 in compensation last year from the ILA.
He collected another $173,000 as president emeritus of a local union branch, according to labor department filings.
He lives in a 7,136 square-foot house valued at $1.7 million on a 10-acre lot in Sparta, New Jersey, according to Zillow and NJ Property Records.
By comparison, his fellow union bosses at the AFL-CIO, Teamsters and autoworkers unions earn less than $300,000 a year, according to a Politico report.
Daggett formerly owned the Obsession – a 76-foot yacht – and his family reportedly saw him zipping around in a Bentley, according to The New York Times.
In 2005, the Justice Department accused Daggett of being an “associate” of the Genovese crime family – one of the “Five Families” of the US Mafia.
Daggett took the witness stand that year after federal prosecutors charged him with racketeering.
He described himself as a target of the mob – though a turncoat Mafia member had testified Daggett was under the mob’s thumb, The New York Times reported.
During the course of the trial, one of Daggett’s co-defendants – Lawrence Ricci, an alleged major mob figure – disappeared. His body was found weeks later decomposing in the trunk of a car outside a New Jersey diner.
Ricci’s death remained unsolved, though speculation circulated that he was killed after refusing to plead guilty to avoid news reports of the trial.
Daggett was acquitted in two cases – even though the famous black-and-white mob movie “On the Waterfront” was inspired by his longshoremen’s union.
Over the years, Daggett has bad-mouthed the Waterfront Commission – a regulatory agency that was inspired by the movie and created to prevent corruption among New York and New Jersey ports.
Daggett called the commission’s accusations of mob ties “total bulls–t” and a “dark, ugly attack on Italian Americans.”
“It’s a damn tragedy for the Waterfront Commission to enjoy free rein and target Italian Americans as part of their historic anti-worker campaign,” Daggett said in 2022. “Let’s be real here. The Waterfront Commission has, for decades, claimed good jobs went to only those with so-called ‘mob ties.’”
Now, he’s using his trademark aggression to fight suppliers, government agencies and even President Biden on the strikes – which will cause supply chain logjams and could cost the economy billions each day, according to JP Morgan.
Retailers, auto suppliers and produce importers had hoped Biden would impose the federal Taft-Hartley Act, which allows US presidents to enact an 80-day cooling-off period that forces employees to return to work during certain labor disputes.
But those hopes were swept away when Biden said Monday that he does not “believe” in Taft-Hartley.
Daggett had mocked the idea during an interview in early September.
“Do you think when I go back for 90 days those men are gonna go to work on that pier?” Daggett said.
He painted a picture of the effects of the strikes over time – signaling he was readying to buckle down for the long run.
“Everything in the United States comes on a ship,” Daggett said during the September interview.
During the first week of the strikes, media outlets will cover the picket lines, he predicted.
During the second week, car salesmen will struggle to hold onto their jobs as automotive shipments stall, Daggett said. The malls will start to shut down during the third week.
Next, construction workers’ jobs will be at risk, since steel and lumber shipments will lag.
“Everybody’s hating the longshoremen now because now they realize how important our jobs are,” the union head warned.