With hours to go before their labor contract expired, longshoremen on the East and Gulf Coasts prepared on Monday to go on strike at midnight, halting most activity at some of the busiest U.S. ports.
The walkout by members of the International Longshoremen’s Association, after a monthslong standoff in negotiations, would cost the economy billions of dollars a day.
President Biden can use a federal labor law to force the longshoremen back to work, but on Sunday he said he was not considering using that power. In recent days, top government officials have pressed both sides to reach a deal.
“The stakes are very high,” Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York said at a news conference on Monday. “The potential for disruption is significant.” She added, however, that shortages were not expected and consumers need not stockpile food.
The I.L.A., which has 47,000 members, has not held a strike at all the East and Gulf Coast ports since 1977. The union and the United States Maritime Alliance, the employers’ negotiating group, are at loggerheads over wages and benefits. The union is also resisting the use of automated machinery at the ports.
On Monday, Jim McNamara, spokesman for the I.L.A., said in a statement that the Maritime Alliance had refused the union’s demands “for a fair and decent contract.”
Recently, big unions like the Teamsters and the United Automobile Workers have gotten much of what they asked for in contract negotiations. The longshoremen have even more leverage.
There is no practical alternative to the East and Gulf Coast ports for moving many goods in and out of the eastern half of the country. And the ports can’t operate without longshoremen, who move metal boxes called containers on and off ships and handle other economically crucial cargo, like cars and heavy machinery.
Fearing a strike, many businesses ordered goods early so that they cleared the East and Gulf Coast ports before Tuesday. But much cargo didn’t make it through in time and could be stranded at sea. Even if a strike is short, it could take weeks to clear the backlog.
John Wrenn, the chief operating officer at MHW, an alcoholic beverages distributor in Manhasset, N.Y., is concerned that a strike might delay shipments and leave his business short as Thanksgiving approaches.
“Those are big opportunities for sales that will just be lost because products will not be on the shelves,” he said. MHW imports over 2,000 containers a year through the Port of New York and New Jersey, the third busiest port in the United States.
The I.L.A. said a strike would not stop work on cruise ships and military shipments. At the Port of New York and New Jersey, bulk foodstuffs like edible oils and orange juice will also be unaffected. But other food imports could stop, leading to shortages if a strike dragged on.
Stefanie Katzman, executive vice president at S. Katzman Produce, a fruit and vegetable supplier in the Bronx, is particularly concerned that mangos, which are imported from Brazil, will spoil if they are stuck on a ship. She is considering flying some mangos in, a much more expensive option. “There’s nowhere near as much room to fly product as there is to send it in by boat,” Ms. Katzman said.
The West Coast ports will stay open because their longshoremen belong to another union, which agreed a new contract last year. Though some shipments are being diverted there, causing a recent surge in activity, those ports will not be able to absorb all the cargo that goes through East and Gulf Coast ports, which account for three-fifths of U.S. container traffic. And businesses say transporting cargo from the West Coast ports on trucks or trains to the East Coast is too expensive for many goods and destinations.
The I.L.A. broke off contract talks in June, saying it had discovered labor-saving technology at a port in Mobile, Ala. The technology, used to check trucks in and out of the port, has been at the port since 2008, when it opened, a person familiar with the port said. Last week, the Maritime Alliance asked the National Labor Relations Board to force the I.L.A. to resume negotiations, though it could take many weeks before the board acts after investigating the alliance’s claims.
The union’s president, Harold J. Daggett, has recently focused the I.L.A.’s campaign more on wages, saying the raises offered by the Maritime Alliance were “insulting.”
Under the current contract, which expires on Monday, longshoremen earn a top rate of $39 an hour. The I.L.A. is asking for a $5-an-hour raise for each of the six years of the new contract, which would put them at $69 an hour in the final year of the contract. The pay of West Coast longshoremen will rise to $60.85 an hour in 2027, the last year of their contract.
With overtime and shift work, a longshoreman’s income can exceed $200,000. But longshoremen say they have to put in long work weeks to make that much money.
The employers in the Maritime Alliance include global shipping companies, which made windfall profits during 2021 and 2022 when the pandemic prompted a surge in trade.
The shipping industry and the businesses that rely on it are now facing several challenges, including a drought that reduced crossings through the Panama Canal and attacks on cargo ships in the Red Sea that have forced ships to avoid the Suez Canal and take the much longer route around the Cape of Good Hope. Those disruptions have driven freight prices higher, which have raised profits at shipping lines but have hurt businesses and consumers.
In 2002, President George W. Bush used the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act to force port operators to reopen West Coast ports. The act allows a president to suspend a shutdown for 80 days, during which efforts can be made to reach a deal.
In 2022, with Mr. Biden’s urging, Congress intervened to stop a freight rail strike. But labor experts said the president might be reluctant to pressure unions a little over a month before a national election.
“They just don’t want to have a fight with labor going into the election,” said Harry C. Katz, a professor at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations, “because you need the unions to get out the vote.”
The post Strike Deadline Nears at Ports From Maine to Texas appeared first on New York Times.
