The International Longshoremen’s Association is preparing to strike along the East Coast and Gulf Coast this week.
The union, which represents about 2,400 workers at the Port of Baltimore, said Sunday that work will stop starting Tuesday.
“The 85,000 members of the International Longshoremen’s Association, in solidarity with tens of thousands of dock and maritime workers from around the world, will take to the picket lines at 12:01 a.m. on Tuesday,” the union said. “The United States Maritime Alliance refuses to address half a century of wage suppression.”
The US Maritime Alliance filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board last week, claiming the union has refused to negotiate. The union called the filing a publicity stunt and says the two sides have been communicating in recent weeks.
White House officials met with port operators on Friday and urged them to negotiate with a dockworkers union. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su and Lael Brainard, director of the White House National Economic Council, told members of the United States Maritime Alliance that they needed to sit at the table with the union and negotiate before the contract was signed Monday expired. said a White House official who insisted on anonymity.
In a statement last week, the Maryland Port Administration implored both sides to negotiate “an agreement that appropriately compensates the men and women of the ILA while maintaining cost-effective and efficient cargo flows.” The current contract expires on Monday.
Port-related economic losses on the East and Gulf coasts could amount to as much as $5 billion a day, said Margaret Kidd, an associate professor of supply chain and logistics technology at the University of Houston. For every day the ILA strikes, it would take an average of five days to clear the backlog, meaning a two-week strike could have implications for next year.
The ILA has not walked out on such a large scale on the East Coast since 1977, when a work stoppage lasted 45 days
