US dockworkers strike, threatening economic disruption before presidential election
Dockworkers at major ports from Maine to Texas walk out, disrupting vital trade arteries in the world’s largest economy
Dockworkers on the US East and Gulf coasts went on strike early Tuesday after failing to reach a new contract deal with port owners – a major industrial action that threatens to disrupt shipping and cost the US economy billions of dollars just weeks out from the presidential election.
A six-year contract between the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and the US Maritime Alliance (USMX) expired at midnight on Monday.
The strike, affecting 36 ports, was the ILA’s first since 1977. The association, which represents 45,000 dockworkers, shut down some of the country’s main trade gateways to secure a bigger slice of higher freight rates – caused in part by Houthi rebel attacks in the Red Sea.
As dawn broke Tuesday, the White House urged both sides to negotiate in good faith “fairly and quickly” toward a resolution, adding that it was closely monitoring supply chains – with no immediate indication that there were supply chain constraints involving food, fuel or medicine.
In a statement, the White House added that Washington continued to confer with retailers, grocers, manufacturers and agricultural interests drawing on experience built during past systemic shocks, including Covid-19 pandemic and the closure of the Port of Baltimore.
“Current preliminary assessments indicate immediate impacts across medicines, medical devices, and infant formula for consumers, parents, and caregivers should be limited,” the US Department of Health and Human Services added.
In the final hours before the strike deadline, the US Chamber of Commerce called on US President Joe Biden to intervene.
