(VitalNews.org) – Dockworkers in the U.S. East and Gulf Coasts are threatening to strike starting in October. The possible strike of over four thousand dockworkers could shut down ports that handle half the nation’s cargo ships.
The International Longshoremen’s Union has been demanding a substantial increase in their wages and a ban on automated cranes, container movements, and gates. Regardless of whether they continue with a strike or not, the decision that they make will affect how freight moves in and out of the United States in the coming years.
If the strike resolves within a few weeks, consumers wouldn’t notice any difference, but a strike that could continue for months would likely cause a shortage of some consumer products. If the strike is prolonged, it would definitely hurt the United States economy.
A main factor that would change is that the traffic would head to West ports as they are part of a different union that isn’t going on strike. However, this would mean heavy traffic across the country and a shipping backlog that would happen once the operations continue back up.
Mia Ginter, director of North American ocean shipping for C.H. Robinson, a logistics firm, said, “I think everyone’s a bit nervous about it. The rhetoric this time with the ILA is at a level we haven’t seen before.”
Harold Daggett, the union president, said earlier this month that the longshoremen were ready to strike once their contract expires. “We are very far apart,” Daggett said. “Mark my words, we’ll shut them down October first if we don’t get the kind of wages we deserve.”
The top-scale workers in this industry make thirty-nine dollars per hour and with benefits and overtime, they could make over two hundred thousand dollars per year. However, Daggett said that these longshoremen often work one hundred hours or more, mostly overtime and that they don’t have much time for their families.
The Maritime Alliance said that they are committed to resuming negotiations and avoiding a national longshoremen’s strike.
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