Massive US port strike takes effect and could seriously disrupt the supply of goods and increase prices. Protests turn violent

The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) dockworkers’ union went on strike at midnight last night because they were underpaid and automation was affecting their job security. This was the first major port strike since 1977. If extended and not resolved quickly, this strike could lead to major shortages of all kinds of goods and cause the prices of most products and imports to rise.

After a lengthy standoff with the ILA and the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) went nowhere, the contract with the ports and workers expired last night, affecting about 45,000 ILA members. About 25,000 of these workers have quit their jobs and are protesting.

World Freight News reports that ‘the ILA is calling for significant wage increases and a complete ban on the use of automated equipment, including cranes, gates and container-moving trucks, when loading and unloading cargo.’ Workers are demanding a 77% wage increase over the next six years.

The strike affects 36 ports from Texas to Maine, specifically 14 major ports, including:

• Boston, MA
• New York/New Jersey
• Philadelphia, PA
• Norfolk (Hampton Roads), Virginia
• Baltimore, Maryland
• Wilmington, Delaware
• Charleston, South Carolina
• Savannah, Georgia
• Jacksonville, FL
• Tampa, Fla
• Miami, FL
• Mobile, Alabama
• New Orleans, Louisiana
• Houston, Texas

With thanks to: © WorldCargo News / Bureau OMA

Some of these strikes have already turned violent. Union members at a Boston dock attacked a garbage collector who was trying to do his job.

These ports handle about half of the country’s cargo. Therefore, the strikes will create systematic backlogs the longer this remains unresolved, not to mention shortages and price increases for a wide range of items.

Alan Murphy, CEO of Sea-Intelligence, a research and analysis service, warned mid-August: “It would take six days to clear the backlog of one strike day, meaning that a one-week strike in early October would not be cleared until mid-November. If we have a two-week strike, the ports would realistically not be able to function normally again until 2025.”

Shipping giant Maersk said in a commentary: “The strike will impact supply chains, leading to freight delays, higher costs and logistical challenges for companies dependent on the US East Coast and Gulf ports. Extended duration of labor disputes could exacerbate disruptions and impact import and export activities, container availability and overall operational efficiency.”

In the meantime, ships headed to these East Coast ports cannot be diverted and will anchor until a solution is found. Peter Sand, Chief Shipping Analyst at Xeneta, said: “These ships cannot return and they cannot realistically divert to the US West Coast. Some may move to ports in Canada or even the east coast of Mexico, but the vast majority will simply wait outside the affected ports for workers to return.”

Sand also warned of the economic consequences this will cause:

The consequences will be severe, not only through congestion at US ports, but more importantly, these ships will be delayed in their return to the Far East for the next voyage. A strike lasting just a week will affect schedules for ships leaving the Far East on voyages to the US at the end of December and throughout January.

More than 40% of total container cargo enters the US through ports on the East and Gulf coasts, so the stakes couldn’t be higher.

Stopping trade from entering the US on such a large scale, even for a short period of time, is very damaging to the economy, so government intervention will be necessary to bring the matter to a resolution for the good of the nation.

Harold J. Daggett, international president of IRL, had warned days in advance that he and his union staff will “paralyze” you because of the way modern commerce works.

AUTHOR’S COMMENTS

Typical union: the leader acts smugly like a mafia boss, getting paid for not working, while the workers doing the actual work are squatting. And then this idiot wants to act smug, with his stupid gold chain, like he’s some kind of gangster. You see, before I became a full-time journalist/author, I worked in construction and in 2020 I was considered ‘essential’ as a private subcontractor during the lockdowns. So where was my special “compensation?” You’re not special.

This country is WAY too organized. I understand that there was a time and a place for them in our history, and even now in certain aspects, but we have heard this song and dance so many times; and the leaders reap all the important benefits and the people who are supposed to help get the crumbs, and yet no one learns and the cycle repeats.

This is such an obvious psyop of controlled opposition, so obvious it’s not even funny. The Biden-Harris administration has purposefully ignored this for the very reason that prices are going up and backlogs are building. This country produces barely anything and imports almost everything, sending our once well-paying jobs overseas for cheap slave and sweatshop labor elsewhere.

I bet this will only accelerate automation further. The government and these ports would prefer not to have to pay anyone anymore.

Be that as it may, regardless of how you feel about the current situation, the fact remains that we have one and therefore it is best to take precautions to deal with it. This is why I have been warning for years that you must continue to steadily increase your emergency and reserve food, water, safety and protection supplies. So it may be a good time to increase your resources, especially if these attacks continue for weeks.

This is also why you need to network and do business with your local farmers, in terms of food at least, and grow and store your own food, as we have often seen that you cannot rely on the modern system; and it would be unwise to do so.

Proverbs 22:3 A sensible one man He foresees evil and conceals himself; but the simple continue and are punished.

(7) Who ever goes to war at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat its fruit? Or who feeds a flock and does not eat the milk of the flock? (8) Do I say these things as a man? Or doesn’t the law say the same thing? (9) For it is written in the law of Moses, You shall not muzzle the mouth of the ox that tramples the grain. Does God take care of oxen? (10) Or he says It entirely for our good? For our good, no doubt, this it is written, that he who plows must plow in heaps; and that he that thirsteth in hope shall be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).

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