Americans should prepare to feel the consequences of another strike as labor talks between the nation’s largest union for port workers and the United States Maritime Alliance remain at a standstill.
On Oct. 1, that threat became a reality when around 50,000 of the union’s 85,000 members at 36 East Coast and Gulf Coast ports walked off the job for the first time since 1977.
That came after the International Longshoremen’s Association said last week that its efforts to reach a new labor contract with the USMX had fallen on deaf ears.
The strike, depending on how long it lasts, could have a major effect on the U.S. economy right ahead of the holiday season, impacting prices and supply at stores across the country.
CNBC reports that around 42%-49% of all US imports come through the ports that are seeing workers walk off the job. In total, several billions of dollars in trade moves through the ports monthly.
The ports handle about half of the United States’ ocean imports. The items that enter the country via the ports include food, auto parts, liquor, cars shipped via containers, raw materials, clothing, furniture, appliances, and holiday toys, CNNand USA Today reported.
The impact is expected to be so great that ILA President Harold Daggett said in an interview on Tuesday with CNN that if things aren’t resolved quickly, the impact will be detrimental to the entire world.
“If we have to be out here a month or two months, this world will collapse,” Daggett told CNN. “Go blame them. Don’t blame me, blame them.”
With the holidays right around the corner, many have wondered how the strike will impact their ability to buy presents. Greg Ahearn, the president and chief executive of The Toy Association, told USA Today that consumers should expect prices to rise for everything if the strike continues.
“A supply chain disruption would undoubtedly lead to price increases across the board and would impact consumers’ ability to find the toys they are looking for in the weeks and months ahead,” Ahearn said.
USMX offered the union a nearly 50% wage hike over six years in its last effort to avoid a strike on Monday. However, the offer was rejected by the union, according to CNBC.
Now that the strike is in effect, at least hundreds of millions of dollars a day could be lost at the port ownership group’s largest ports in New York and New Jersey.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) addressed this in a statement early on Tuesday, saying “The first large-scale eastern dockworker strike in 47 years began at ports from Maine to Texas, including at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. In preparation for this moment, New York has been working around the clock to ensure that our grocery stores and medical facilities have the essential products they need.”