US President Biden has called for a quick deal to end the standoff that threatens to drain billions of dollars from the US economy.
Tens of thousands of US longshoremen are on strike for the second day in a row, halting shipments at major shipyards in the East.
Containers piled up at 36 ports from Maine to Texas on Wednesday, with no sign of an agreement being reached with the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX), the longshoremen’s employer group.
The suspension is aimed at securing higher wages and better protection for the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA)’s 45,000 workers, but experts say the crisis is a dire economic downturn in the month before the presidential election. They are concerned that this could lead to further losses and higher inflation.
Market forecasting firm Oxford Economics predicts that each passing conflict could drain $4.5 billion to $7.5 billion from the U.S. economy.
“Time for them to sit down.”
Concerned about the economic downturn, White House officials have called on USMX to do more to meet longshoremen’s demands, including raising wages by 77% over six years and banning automation.
“It’s time for them to come to the table and carry out this attack,” Biden told reporters Wednesday.
He said shipping companies have made huge profits during the coronavirus pandemic and should fairly compensate workers who have kept business booming.
“They’ve made incredible profits, more than 800% since the pandemic, and the owners are making tens of millions of dollars on this,” Biden said.
Presidential Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg also called for more concessions from port employers.
“Companies need to come forward with proposals that bring workers to the bargaining table,” Buttigieg said. “We actually think the parties are not as far apart financially as they think.”
USMX proposed raising wages by 50 percent and maintaining current automation checks as a final offer before negotiations broke down.
“The longer the attack, the deeper the damage.”
Analysts say a short-term outage is expected to have minimal impact on U.S. consumers, but a prolonged strike could cause problems.
“The longer the strike lasts and the longer it takes for the U.S. government to intervene, the more damage will be done to the economy and the longer it will take for maritime supply chains to recover,” said Peter Sand, chief shipping analyst. ” he said. Data company Zeneta.
Mr. Biden has the authority under the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act to order union members to return to work, but he has avoided taking such action.
Democrats have long touted their ambitions to be the “most pro-union president leading the most pro-union administration in U.S. history,” and in September 2023 they made history by becoming the first sitting president to join a picket line. He left his name behind.
Amid the current standoff, Biden has directed his team to be on the lookout for potential price gouging that would benefit foreign ship carriers, according to the White House.
