Forex – Strike activity is on the rise in labor and logistics circles after two days of meetings by North America’s largest dockworkers union deadlocked over a new contract with port owners.
The International Longshoremen’s Union (ILA) strike, which handles trade at ports on the East Coast, Gulf Coast and Puerto Rico, will affect 43% of all U.S. imports and billions of dollars in monthly trade.
At the end of a two-day meeting of the union’s pricing committee on Thursday, union members unanimously backed a strike on October 1 if a new contract that meets their demands is not agreed.
ILA President and the union’s chief negotiator, Harold Daggett, said he wants a good economic deal for his members, which includes the union’s opposition to port automation and private port contracts.
Daggett said bargaining with good intent was the only way to reach a deal and threatened a slowdown if the Biden administration used the Taft-Hartley Act to force unionized workers back to the docks.
