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America is less than a week away from a potentially crippling strike at its seaports on the Atlantic and gulf coasts. The current work agreement between the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and port operators is set to expire at midnight next Monday (September 30, 2024) – and the union has vowed to go on strike if a new deal isn’t reached.
The ILA – which represents more than 45,000 dock workers – is pushing for major concessions including wage hikes and a ban on automation, but so far port operators haven’t budged.
Ryan Peterson – the chief executive officer of supply chain logistics company Flexport – sounded the alarm on the strike last week, calling it “the biggest wild card in the presidential election that nobody’s talking about.”
According to Peterson, the latest news on negotiations is not encouraging – barring a last-minute decision by president Joe Biden to intervene.
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“The potential ILA work stoppage at all East and Gulf Coast ports next week looks increasingly inevitable,” Peterson wrote. “Unless Biden steps in this thing is happening. And his team says they’re not going to intervene. Now just a question of how long it lasts. Every day of closure will lead to 7-10 days of cargo backing up.”
What sort of impact would a work stoppage have on the American economy?
“Hundreds of thousands of businesses depends on our ports for their daily existence,” Peterson noted. “And all Americans buy things that come in via ocean freight. It’s the circulatory system of modern civilization.”
A strike lasting only a handful of days – which for now appears to be the industry consensus – probably wouldn’t cause severe disruptions. Were a strike to last weeks, though, there could be a significant impact on consumers.
Industry insiders who spoke with this media outlet said they are confident the matter will be resolved – or at least kicked down the road until after the 2024 presidential election.
The rationale? According to them, labor doesn’t want to adversely impact the presidential prospects of Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.
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“I still am convinced there will be a resolution potentially by this weekend,” one source familiar with the situation told me. “They will not want to give Harris a black eye this close to the election.”
Unions aren’t as monolithically Democratic as they once were, however. To wit: Harris did not receive the endorsement of the Teamsters this year – a group which had been poised to back Biden prior to his exit from the race back in July. In fact, GOP nominee Donald Trump nearly won the group’s nod.
“President Joe Biden won the support of Teamsters voting in straw polls at local unions between April-July prior to his exit from the race,” a statement from the organization noted. “But in independent electronic and phone polling from July-September, a majority of voting members twice selected Trump for a possible Teamsters endorsement over Harris.”
The Teamsters haven’t backed a Republican presidential candidate since 1988 – when its members narrowly endorsed then-vice president George H.W. Bush.
“I think we will see some movement this weekend,” the source added, predicting the union would likely “get most of what they ask for.”
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“The automation is the tricky part,” the source said, referring to the union’s bid to block automated processes at gates and cranes.
The U.S. Maritime Alliance (USMX) has extended several offers to the ILA including “industry-leading wage increases” and elevated “employer retirement contributions,” according to the organization. Those deals reportedly retain “the existing technology language that created a framework for how to modernize and improve efficiency while protecting jobs and hours.”
As of this writing, though, negotiations are at a standstill.
“Despite additional attempts by USMX to engage with the ILA and resume bargaining, we have been unable to schedule a meeting to continue negotiations,” USMX noted in a release (.pdf) issued earlier this week. “We remain prepared to bargain at any time, but both sides must come to the table if we are going to reach a deal, and there is no indication that the ILA is interested in negotiating at this time.”
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
Will Folks is the owner and founding editor of FITSNews. Prior to founding his own news outlet, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina, bass guitarist in an alternative rock band and bouncer at a Columbia, S.C. dive bar. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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