Dockworkers on the U.S. East Coast and Gulf Coast began a strike early on Tuesday, their first large-scale stoppage in nearly 50 years, halting the flow of about half the nation’s ocean shipping after negotiations for a new labor contract broke down over wages.
The strike blocks everything from food to automobile shipments across dozens of ports from Maine to Texas, in a disruption analysts warned will cost the economy billions of dollars a day, threaten jobs, and potentially stoke inflation.
The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) union representing 45,000 port workers had been negotiating with the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) employer group for a new six-year contract ahead of a midnight Sept. 30 deadline.
The ILA said in a statement on Tuesday it shut down all ports from Maine to Texas at 12:01 a.m. ET (0401 GMT) and had rejected USMX’s final proposal made on Monday, adding the offer fell “far short of the demands of its members to ratify a new contract”.
The ILA’s leader, Harold Daggett, has said employers such as container ship operator Maersk (MAERSKb.CO), opens new tab and its APM Terminals North America have not offered appropriate pay increases or agreed to demands to stop port automation projects.
The USMX said in a statement on Monday it had offered to hike wages by nearly 50%, up from a prior proposal. Daggett, meanwhile, said the union is pushing for a 61.5% pay increase, according to CNBC.
Read more at Reuters.com
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