Tens of thousands of dockworkers on the Eastern Seaboard and Gulf Coast hit the picket line early Tuesday amid a strike over wages and automation at ports.
The walkout, which began at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, followed months of stalled contract negotiations and a last-minute exchange of counteroffers. Here’s what you need to know.
What happened — and why?
The International Longshoremen’s Association and the United States Maritime Alliance, known as USMX, which represents shippers, terminal operators and port associations, failed to agree to a new labor contract before the previous six-year agreement expired.
There were eleventh-hour talks — and the Biden administration urged USMX to reach a deal during a meeting at the White House — but ultimately the dockworkers, who load and unload cargo ships at 14 ports from New England to Texas, walked off the job. The last time the longshore workers took to the picket line at East and Gulf Coast ports was in 1977. USMX says the now-expired contract covered about 25,000 employees.
The labor dispute stems from the union’s concerns over technology replacing human workers and demands for higher pay. USMX said Monday its latest offer would increase wages by nearly 50 percent — but that wasn’t enough for the union, which has released numbers suggesting it wants close to 60 percent raises.
ILA President Harold Daggett has pushed for additional protections against automation and, last July, vowed to create an international coalition to prevent maritime ports from pursuing such technology.
“Nothing’s gonna move without us,” Daggett said at a picket line in New Jersey overnight. “We’re gonna win this fuckin’ thing, trust me, they can’t survive too long.”
How will this affect consumers?
The strike is snarling trade at major ports, including the Port of New York and New Jersey, the East Coast’s biggest, and other major ports located in Savannah, Georgia; Hampton Roads, Virginia; and Baltimore.
East and Gulf Coast ports handle about half of U.S. ocean imports such as apparel, Christmas decorations and fruit and vegetables, and a strike could amount to an estimated economic impact of anywhere between hundreds of millions of dollars to $5 billion per day, according to analysts and business groups.
The country’s largest name-brand retailers like Costco and Walmart are managing to accelerate shipments or reroute to West Coast ports, and consumers likely won’t see a major dearth of basic items if the strike resolves within days or even a few weeks. But if the strike persists for more than a month, consumers could face shortages and price hikes for a wide range of goods. Smaller retailers and certain sectors won’t be so lucky.
The Food Industry Association said the strike has “already begun to jeopardize food supply chain operations,” and has the potential to disrupt pharmaceuticals, seafood, produce, meat, cheese and other product markets, it said. “And, unfortunately, this situation cannot be addressed by a switch to alternative ports due to the freight costs and time associated with transporting products back to the East Coast.”
The ports affected by the strike include those in Baltimore and Brunswick, Georgia, which are among the busiest vehicle-handling ports for imports, raising fears of production delays. Philadelphia offers a major avenue for produce shipments, and New Orleans handles coffee, chemicals and wood products.
“Many have taken steps to mitigate the potential risk by bringing product in earlier in the season or shifting product to the West Coast," said Jonathan Gold, vice president of supply chain and customs policy at the National Retail Federation. "But even with those actions, there’s still going to be an impact to retailers that can't get their merchandise."
Cruise ships and oil tankers will be unaffected by the work stoppage because of a mix of non-ILA labor and the union’s pledge to not hold up travelers.
How could this affect the elections?
President Joe Biden has often touted himself as the “most pro-union president in American history,” but the political consequences for him and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris could be severe if the strike stretches on and consumers struggle to find everyday items like bananas — or if prices increase for automobiles or groceries.
For Harris, the labor dispute will force her to square pro-union stances with the business-friendly economic agenda she’s unveiled since taking over the Democratic presidential ticket. Former President Donald Trump, meanwhile, will have a chance to further his message that the Biden-era has saddled consumers with high prices and supply-chain misery.
Trump in a Truth Social post on Tuesday said dockworkers had gone on strike “because their wages have not kept up with Kamala’s inflation crisis.”
The Harris campaign referred to statements made by the administration and comments from spokesperson Ian Sams to Fox News on Monday, where he defended the administration’s efforts to resolve the labor dispute and said Harris encourages the parties to return to the bargaining table.
Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at consulting company RSM US, estimates the strike could moderately soften economic growth, resulting in around $4.3 billion of weekly import and export losses. Temporary job losses stemming from the walkout and a separate ongoing strike at Boeing could also weaken next month’s jobs report, which will come out only a few days before Election Day.
The report “will be distorted significantly, but that doesn’t mean people won’t scream about it,” Brusuelas said.
Biden on Tuesday called on USMX to negotiate a fair agreement with the longshore workers, expressing concern about the industry’s “record profits.”
What can Biden do?
Retailers and business groups including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have called on Biden to intervene by using the Taft-Hartley Act, a 1947 labor law that would allow the administration to ward off a strike by requiring both sides to return to the negotiating table, and temporarily force workers back on the job. But it’s not a unilateral power — using it would involve seeking a court injunction.
The White House has repeatedly said it has no plans to invoke the law. Biden on Sunday reiterated that position, saying he doesn’t “believe in Taft-Hartley.”
The law was last used by President George W. Bush in 2002 to head off a lockout affecting longshore workers at West Coast ports, who are represented by a separate union.
Unlike the near-century-old Railway Labor Act — which Biden and Congress used to impose an agreement on rail workers in 2022 — Taft-Hartley wouldn’t be a cure-all for bringing workers back to their jobs. The law allows the president to seek an injunction in court to end the strike while negotiations continue during an 80-day “cooling off” period.
Presidents have used the law more than 30 times, said Michael LeRoy, a University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign labor professor who has researched Taft-Hartley. President Jimmy Carter was the last Democrat to attempt to utilize the law. That was during a labor standoff involving unionized mine workers.
Daggett, the ILA’s fiery head, has warned the Biden administration to not intercede, threatening to order a debilitating slowdown if dockworkers are forced back to work due to Taft-Hartley.
How long will the strike go?
That’s anybody’s guess. The 2002 West Coast stoppage went 11 days before Bush intervened.
The Biden administration has enlisted several high-ranking officials to keep abreast of negotiations and lend a hand if the parties request it — including Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, acting Labor Secretary Julie Su and economic adviser Lael Brainard.
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