Paul Berger of The Wall Street Journal reports that retailers and manufacturers are rushing in merchandise and pushing shipments to other gateways as labor walkouts at ports on the East and Gulf Coasts grow likelier. Berger writes:
U.S. importers are rushing in millions of dollars’ worth of electronics, holiday goods and industrial materials to get ahead of a possible strike by dockworkers in less than two weeks that threatens to lock down major ports and hammer the American economy.
The drive has gained urgency as a walkout by 45,000 dockworkers at ports from Maine to Texas has grown more likely, swamping West Coast ports with big cargo volumes as companies redraw their supply chains to get away from the looming labor turmoil. […]
The union, which is seeking a 77% wage increase over six years, and port employers haven’t met at the bargaining table yet and no negotiations have been scheduled.
A strike would also deliver a blow to the U.S. economy just a few weeks before the presidential election, leaving a pro-labor Biden administration with a tough political path to navigate. […]
“I’m not going to put my cargo on a ship on the 15th of September that has an ETA of October 1st to a port that might be impacted,” Fellmer said. “I just don’t think that’s a wise decision when you could delay it a week or two weeks on the expectation that things will be perhaps moving by then.”
Read more here.
