Determined to thwart the automating of their jobs, about 45,000 dockworkers along the U.S. East and Gulf Coasts are threatening to strike on Oct. 1, a move...
Determined to thwart the automating of their jobs, about 45,000 dockworkers along the U.S. East and Gulf Coasts are threatening to strike on Oct. 1, a move that would shut down ports that handle about half the nation's cargo from ships.
“I think everyone's a bit nervous about it,” said Mia Ginter, director of North America ocean shipping for C.H. Robinson, a logistics firm. "The rhetoric this time with the ILA is at a level we haven’t seen before.” The Maritime Alliance has said it's committed to resuming talks and avoiding the first national longshoremen's strike since 1977. It has accused the union of having already decided in advance to walk off the job.
Imports to ports are up 10% this year over 2023 on the East Coast and 20% on the West Coast, indicating that some freight was shipped in anticipation of a strike, said Ben Nolan, a transportation analyst with Stifel. Daggett said the union members expect to be waging their biggest fight — against the automation of job functions at ports — well into the future.
But another study that same year by a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, that was commissioned by port operators and shippers concluded that between 2015, when Los Angeles-area ports adopted some automation, and 2021, paid hours for port union members grew 11.2%. Any final reckoning over automation, though, remains a long way off. For shippers to abandon U.S. ports, Mexican ports would have to become more efficient at the same time that U.S. ports became “prohibitively inefficient," said Stifel's Nolan.In the meantime, if there is a strike, analysts say West Coast ports could pick up at least some additional freight that might be diverted from Eastern ports, especially from Asia. But they couldn't handle it all. Neither could the U.S.
Dockworkers Port Strike Ben Nolan Automating West Coast
Canada Latest News, Canada Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Longshoremen at key US ports threatening to strike over automation and payDetermined to thwart the automating of their jobs, about 45,000 dockworkers along the U.S. East and Gulf Coasts are threatening to strike on Oct. 1, a move...
Read more »
Longshoremen at key US ports threatening to strike over automation and payDetermined to thwart the automating of their jobs, about 45,000 dockworkers along the U.S. East and Gulf Coasts are threatening to strike on Oct. 1, a move...
Read more »
‘Determined’ to reopen, Camp McDougall hosting roast beef fundraiser next monthEvent takes place Sept. 28 at Rankin Arena to help camp open for 2025 summer season
Read more »
US East Coast ports union meets over wage demand, preps for possible strikeThe International Longshoremen's Association union, representing 45,000 workers at major container ports from Texas to Maine, will begin two days of meetings...
Read more »
Singh terminates NDP deal propping up Liberal governmentTrudeau government’s future to be determined on a vote-to-vote basis
Read more »
Singh terminates NDP deal propping up Canada’s Liberal governmentTrudeau government’s future to be determined on a vote-to-vote basis
Read more »