Dock workers from the East and Gulf sides all the way to the Midwest went on strike after midnight on Tuesday. This could make prices go up a lot and lead to shortages of goods at the start of the holiday season.
The strike started at 12:01 a.m. on Tuesday because the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA), which speaks for 45,000 workers, and the group that represents ports could not come to a deal on a new collective bargaining agreement.
It will be the first time since 1977 that 36 ports, from Maine in the north to Texas in the south, will not be able to handle foreign trade. Together, these ports handle $3 trillion in trade every year.
Workers who are on strike want higher pay and security against losing their jobs to machines, which is why work has stopped.
The big work slowdown, on the other hand, stops daily trade worth billions of dollars and could do a lot of damage to an economy that has been struggling with inflation.
Furthermore, the halt comes as several states start to heal from the terrible effects of Hurricane Helene.
If the strike lasts for a long time, it will hurt shops that buy a lot of foreign goods, like Walmart, Ikea, Samsung, Bob’s Discount Furniture, LG, and Home Depot the most.
The managers of the ports are part of the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX). Late Monday night, USMX tried to stop a strike at the last minute by giving a 50% pay raise over six years.
According to CNBC, the ILA turned down the offer even though it came with a pay raise. The people who owned the port thought that the offer would help get the talks going again.
Also, it looks like the union is happy to stick to their requests. In a video, ILA President Harold Daggett told the voting members, “We’ll crush them,” after they all agreed to go on strike.
What Daggett told the union members was “going to go down in history. They can’t last for long.”
It had been weeks since they had talked about a new deal before Monday.
Since talks were still not going anywhere, the strike was bound to happen.
A lot of big ports, like those in Boston, New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Houston, and Miami, started to shut down before the work slowdown.
Also, if the strike lasts longer than a few weeks, it will seriously damage the country’s supply system, leading to higher prices and longer wait times for things to get to homes and businesses.
Also, the strike will probably have an instant effect on purchases of food that goes bad quickly.
A different group represents workers at ports on the West Coast, where the strike could cause traffic jams and affect exports from East Coast ports.
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