First 33,000 Boeing union workers, NOW PORT UNION WORKERS ON BOTH EAST AND WEST COASTS threaten to strike! Those 2 ports process 43% of ALL US imports!
READ THE ENTIRE CNBC ARTICLE HERE!
As inflation is killing middle class incomes, more and more employee unions are or are threatening to strike to improve worker pay. This results in supply chain chaos and higher costs. If the unions from each coast actually strike, goods will be delayed indefinitely resulting in inflation spikes and chaos reminiscent of pandemic era shopping for items such as toilet paper and more. Do you need to stock up on what you need now?
Key Points
U.S. East Coast and Gulf Coast ports handle 43% of all U.S. imports and billions of dollars in trade monthly, but companies have been moving shipping containers to the West Coast over strike fears.
Critical talks between the labor union representing workers, the ILA, and ports management broke down over the summer, with automation a key sticking point.
ILA leadership said in a video released on Wednesday that it is ready to “hit the streets” on Oct. 1 and described the negotiating positions as “very, very far apart” and at a “contract impasse.”
A series of key labor meetings being held this week by North America’s largest longshoremen union could provide insight into the likelihood of a strike by workers at U.S. East Coast and Gulf Coast ports threatened for October 1.
Delegates representing chapters of the International Longshoremen’s Association are meeting on Wednesday and Thursday to discuss a proposed contract with the union’s wage scale committee. ILA president Harold Daggett has described the September meetings as a “two-day marathon” session offering its members a chance to strategize ahead of a potential strike. The union’s contract expires on September 30.
Negotiations with the United States Maritime Alliance, which represents ports ownership, broke down in July after labor said it canceled the talks after discovering that automated technology was being used by APM Terminals and Maersk, the world’s second-largest shipping company and APM Terminals’ parent company, to process trucks at port terminals without union labor. Daggett said in an August 5 statement that membership was 100% behind ILA leadership and its decision to go on strike on October 1 if its demands are not met. He reiterated that threat in strong terms on Wednesday.
“The ILA most definitely will hit the streets on Oct. 1 if we don’t get the kind of contract we deserve. ... Mark my words, we’ll shut them down,” Daggett said in a video released by the ILA on Wednesday.
Speaking in the same video, executive vice president Dennis Daggett added, “We’re at an impasse ... we are very, very far apart” on a new contract (He indicated in his comments it was “less than 60 days out” from the end of the current contract, suggesting he was filmed roughly a month ago). He characterized the relationship between the ILA and port owners as “pretty fragile.”
CONTINUED…
Unions are a wing of the Democrat party. They run their elections the same way.