Port strike begins, freezing shipments on East, Gulf coasts

Tens of thousands of dockworkers went on strike today at ports along the East and Gulf coasts, as the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) and United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) failed to reach a new master contract agreement before the existing six-year agreement expired yesterday.

The USMX stated late last night that the two sides had traded proposals in recent days and that it offered a 50% wage increase. But ILA officials have said that in addition to wage and benefit proposals, union members also want the contract to include protections from automation. Moreover, the union has said its members deserve a greater share of the hundreds of billions in profits port operators have made in recent years.

Last week, USMX filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board that would require the union to resume negotiations.

Carriers, railroads and ports have been preparing for a potential strike by implementing contingency plans in recent weeks. For example, Sept. 25 was the last day to in-gate controlled refrigerated equipment at CSX origins destined to East Coast ports, and yesterday was the last day for import traffic to depart from ports destined to CSX terminals, according to a company statement issued last week.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ), which oversees the largest port on the eastern seaboard, has been working closely with the commercial trucking industry to ensure cargo containing essential goods, medical supplies and food products that have already been offloaded are moved out of port facilities and to their final destinations, according to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul's office.

The National Retail Federation (NRF) is among stakeholder groups calling on the Biden administration to restore operations at the ports.

"A disruption of this scale during this pivotal moment in our nation’s economic recovery will have devastating consequences for American workers, their families and local communities," NRF officials said in a press release.

During an 11-day strike on the West Coast in 2002, the reported economic impact was $1 billion per day, and it took six months to recover, noted the Alliance for Chemical Distribution (ACD) President and CEO Eric Byer.

"The ocean shipping market is already in disarray and this strike will result in severe delays, reroutes and greater uncertainties on the delivery of essential products at countless U.S. ports," Byer said in a press release.