Major Port Strike Enters First Day of East Coast Shutdown

By Jim Pytell, Managing Editor On Oct 1, 2024

Tens of thousands of longshoremen officially went on strike at midnight on Tuesday, shutting down major ports along the US East and Gulf coasts that handle more than half of the country’s trade in cargo containers. This includes the Port of New York and New Jersey, the nation’s third-largest port by volume of cargo handled. 

The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) estimates that $2.1 billion worth of trade would be at risk every day, and additional estimates have indicated that a strike would reduce GDP by up to $5 billion per day, only some of which could be recovered as goods are rerouted or after a shutdown ends.

For the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA), which represents 45,000 dockworkers, it’s the first strike since 1977 after its six-year contract with the U.S. Maritime Alliance (USMX), which represents port employers, expired Monday night.

The unionized striking workers are seeking higher wages and a ban on the automation of cranes, gates and container movements that unload and load the freight ships at different ports.

Under the previous contract, starting wages ranged from $20 to $39 per hour, depending on a worker’s experience. Workers also receive other benefits, such as bonuses connected to container trade.

The union has indicated that it wants to see per-hour pay increase by five dollars per year over the life of the six-year deal, which he estimated amounted to about 10% per year.

At the Port of New York and New Jersey, the strike encompasses 4,500 dock workers, but it will also impact a combined 600,000 related jobs the industry supports and billions of dollars a day in revenues. 

“Nothing’s going to move without us,” Harold Daggett, international president of ILA said. “They can’t survive too long.”

NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons called on President Joe Biden to intervene by invoking the Taft-Hartley Act, which would force ports to resume operations while negotiations continue – though Biden has said he will not invoke the act.

“There will be dire economic consequences on the manufacturing supply chain if [this] strike occurs for even a brief period,” said Timmons. “The president can protect manufacturers and consumers by exercising his authority, and we hope he will act quickly.”

“While we have a very healthy respect for the collective bargaining process, the fact of the matter is the stakes are too high for New Jersey and the rest of the nation to be subject to supply chain shortages, higher prices and delays in goods reaching households and businesses,” NJBIA President & CEO Michele Siekerka said in a statement. “Our ports, especially here in New Jersey, are our gateways to goods that make up our way of life every day – from produce to manufacturing products and everything in between. With supply chain backlogs a recent, pandemic-era memory and with inflation only recently coming back down to Earth, now is not the time to force businesses to pay shippers for delays and for goods to arrive late as the holiday shopping season approaches.”

She also urged the Biden administration to be at the ready to invoke the Taft-Hartley Act  to allow negotiations between both sides to continue, without negatively impacting our economy for an extended period of time.

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