What we warned you about is coming to fruition, here are the cliff notes.
- ILA strike is first such action by the union since 1977
- Strike could cost the economy an estimated $5 billion a day
- Strike disputes include pay, terminal automation project issues
- White House officials hope for short strike, sources say
U.S. East Coast and Gulf Coast dockworkers began their first large-scale strike in nearly 50 years on Tuesday, halting the flow of about half the country’s ocean shipping, after negotiations for a new labor contract broke down over wages.
The strike blocks everything from food to automobile shipments across dozens of ports from Maine to Texas, a disruption analysts warned will cost the economy billions of dollars a day, threaten jobs and potentially stoke inflation.
Still, President Joe Biden’s administration has indicated it will not use federal powers to end the strike, and on Tuesday pressured dockworker employers to bump up their contract offer to land a deal.
The International Longshoremen’s Association union, which represents 45,000 port workers, had been negotiating with the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) employer group for a new six-year contract ahead of a midnight Monday deadline.
The ILA said in a statement it shut down all ports from Maine to Texas at 12:01 a.m. ET (0401 GMT) after rejecting USMX’s final proposal, adding the offer fell “far short of the demands of its members to ratify a new contract”. The ILA’s leader, Harold Daggett, has said employers such as container ship operator Maersk (MAERSKb.CO), and its APM Terminals North America have not offered appropriate pay increases or agreed to demands to stop port automation projects that threaten jobs.
“We are prepared to fight as long as necessary, to stay out on strike for whatever period of time it takes, to get the wages and protections against automation our ILA members deserve,” Daggett said on Tuesday.
USMX said in a statement that: “Our current offer of a nearly 50% wage increase exceeds every other recent union settlement, while addressing inflation and recognizing the ILA’s hard work to keep the global economy running.”
Daggett said the union is pushing for more, including a $5 per hour raise for each year of the new six-year contract.
The White House weighed in, saying it was time for the USMX to negotiate a fair contract for workers.
