The port strike, the longshoremen and the mayor

[Omaha Steve]

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/07/05/port-strike-dockworkers/

By Talia Soglin PUBLISHED: July 5, 2026 at 5:00 AM CDT

At the mouth of the Calumet River on Chicago’s industrial Southeast Side, workers load steel, sugar and lumber off and onto ships.

The port is the center of Chicago’s maritime economy. But labor strife here is spilling off of the docks and into City Hall, with political implications for Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, himself a former labor organizer who is expected to run for reelection in less than a year.

Two unions are fighting over who should represent the dozens of stevedores who work for QSL America, a private company that operates at the publicly owned port.

For more than a year, some QSL workers have been on strike with the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150. But others are still at work, laboring under a new collective bargaining agreement with another labor organization, the International Longshoremen’s Association. QSL agreed to recognize the ILA as the dockworkers’ union representative last year, after the Operating Engineers’ strike began, setting off a battle between the labor groups that is under review by federal regulators at the National Labor Relations Board.


The North America Stevedoring Co. facility, pictured on June 25, 2026, sits along the mouth of the Calumet River on Chicago’s Southeast Side. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)

FULL story at link above.