Massive strike at US ports begins as dock workers strike

Thousands of dock workers on the US East Coast and Gulf Coast are officially on strike after negotiations between their union and an alliance of employers broke down.

The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) represents more than 85,000 workers and has been negotiating with companies, terminal operators and port associations represented by the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) since last May. Without a contract between the groups, up to 45,000 members are out of a job at more than a dozen major ports, including facilities in New York and Texas.

West Coast stevedores — people who load and unload goods at ports — are represented by a different union, which agreed to a contract last year.

“The ocean carriers represented by USMX want to enjoy the rich billions of dollars in profits they are making in 2024 while offering ILA Longshore workers an unacceptable wage package that we reject,” the ILA said in a statement Monday afternoon.

ILA is demanding higher wages and a salary that exceeds inflation, ie cooling after a long stubborn streak and offers more than the small pay raises included in it the last contract. Between 2018 and 2024, employees received a raise of $1 an hour, up to a maximum of $38 an hour — about $79,000 annually for a 40-hour work week — while new hires started at $20 per hour.

Workers are also pushing for protections against automation and new technological devices in terminals. The exact details of the union’s demands or the alliance’s offers were not disclosed.

“The strike is back,” Todd Vachon, director of Rutgers University’s Labor Education Action Research Network, said Monday, pointing to various labor actions taken by unions in recent years. “Unions have always fought to turn bad jobs into good jobs. And when those jobs are threatened, they will fight to save them.”

USMX countered that it has made several offers since talks began 2022although negotiations began in earnest in May. On September 26, the alliance filed an unfair labor practice charge and asked the National Labor Relations Board to require the union to resume negotiations before a strike broke out. According to the alliance, the parties have not met in person since June.

“We remain ready to negotiate at any time, but both sides must come to the table if we are to reach an agreement, and there is no indication that the ILA is interested in negotiating at this time,” the alliance said in September. 23, according to a press release.

Read more: A major US port strike could soon rock the economy. Here’s what you need to know

The strike is the first at these ports since 1977, when trade accounted for just 16 percent of the U.S. economy, down from 27 percent in 2024, according to the Washington Post. reported. ILA President Harold Daggett was among the picketing workers at the time and recently called it “hard strike.”

Ports and facilities that handle about 51 percent of the nation’s total port capacity are likely to be affected by the potential abandonments, according to Miter Corporationand impacting nearly every industry, delaying everything from shipments of foreign fruit to deliveries to automakers and pharmaceutical companies.

The potential damage from such a strike is expected to cost somewhere between $1 billion and 5 billion dollars a dayaccording to Container xChange and JP Morgan shipping container market analysis. Oxford Economics said a prolonged strike could affect up to 100,000 jobs and reduce US economic activity by between $4.5 billion and $7.5 billion for each week it lasts.

“Congestion and delays at these major ports will severely impact container availability, increase costs and disrupt schedules,” said Christian Roeloffs, CEO of Container xChange, whose company works with over 1,500 shipping companiesit said in a Thursday advisory to clients.

Although the White House and federal agencies have encouraged the ILA and USMX to meet at the bargaining table, President Biden has signaled that he will not intervene in the workers’ strike. Under the Taft-Harley Act, the president can impose an 80-day period in which workers return to work while negotiators work on a deal.

A Powerful trade association coalition of 177 members wrote to Biden weeks before the contract expired to ask him to invoke Taft-Harley and avoid the strike. Suzanne Clark, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said failure to intervene would be “unthinkable,” according to a statement Monday. letter to the president.

“It is collective bargaining. I don’t believe in Taft-Hartley. Biden told reporters on Sunday.