Union boss on US port strike: 'I'm not playing games'

Major US ports will remain closed until pay demands are met, the union boss representing striking dockworkers said.

International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) head Harold Daggett made the pledge Tuesday on a picket line in New Jersey, as tens of thousands of dockworkers on the East and Gulf coasts marched to win a better labor contract.

“We're going to fight for it and we're going to win or this port will never open again,” he said. “I'm not playing games here.”

Businesses are expressing concern over the prospect of long-term port closures, which threaten to wreak havoc on global trade and the US economy.

President Joe Biden has so far rejected calls from some of the nation's largest business groups to use federal power to reopen ports for 80 days, suspending the strike to allow a cooling-off period for further negotiations.

“It's only fair that the workers, who put themselves at risk to keep the ports open during the pandemic, should also see a meaningful increase in their wages,” Biden said.

“Now is not the time to refuse to negotiate fair wages for these essential workers while ocean carriers are enjoying record profits.”

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has also supported the striking port workers.

“American workers should be able to negotiate for better wages, especially since shipping companies are mostly foreign-flagged vessels,” he said in a statement.

The strike, the first since 1977 for the ILA, halted container traffic across 14 of the nation's busiest ports, including New York, Georgia and Texas.

The ports are estimated by experts to handle more than a third of US imports and exports. Disruptions may cause delays in product delivery for businesses and consumers.

The president said officials would be on the lookout for signs of unfairly raising prices in case of possible shortages.

Talks on a new contract stalled for months before the strike, but the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX), which represents shipping firms and ports associations, said the two sides had resumed trading proposals.

Under the 2018 contract that expires Monday, dockworkers earned a base hourly wage of $20-$39, as well as other benefits, including royalties tied to container traffic.

USMX said its latest offer would boost pay by nearly 50%, triple company contributions to retirement and improve health care, among other concessions.

The company said the offer trumped “every recent union settlement” and called the current stand-off “entirely unavoidable.”

“How can we get back to the table and actually negotiate, that's the only way to reach a resolution.”

However, the ILA's Mr Daggett said so far “nothing” had been done to bring unions and companies together to end the strike.

He said he was prepared to keep the ports closed until the companies agreed to raise wages by $5 an hour for each year of the contract. The union, which has about 47,000 active members according to federal filings, is also seeking protections against automation.

“I'm going to fight for it because those greedy companies are making billions of dollars and they don't want to share,” he said. “I want my members to take care of them for the rest of their lives and that's why we're here.”

If prolonged, the stoppage is expected to lead to higher prices and shortages in the U.S., shipping delays and other impacts spread around the world.

“We're now seeing ships starting to anchor outside the port waiting to see what's going to happen,” said Anne-Sophie Friberg, vice president of freight forwarding firm GenCargo, which organizes shipments for exporters and importers.

“If the strike lasts, the disruption will be massive,” he said.

Hamid Moghadam, chief executive of Prologis, one of the world's largest warehouse companies and a landlord like Amazon, said the strike was not a shock but was “nevertheless” going to hurt the economy.

“It's going to interfere with the proper functioning of the flow of goods,” he told the BBC.

Already 100,000 containers are waiting to be unloaded in the New York area, and 35 more ships are expected to arrive this week, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said.

Danny Reynolds, owner of Stephenson's, a 93-year-old clothing store in Elkhart, Indiana, said he paid extra to expedite shipments of sweaters and coats into the country before the strike.

But about 25% of his inventory has yet to arrive and he's got his fingers crossed it's unloaded. She said she is most concerned about possible delivery days for special-order bridal gowns for November and December weddings.

“Where we get concerned is that we have special order merchandise for people's wedding days that can be held up on a ship that is unable to reach us. That's a difficult thing to explain to a potential bride,” he said.

About 75% of his goods are routed through East Coast ports, he added. He explained that while he hoped his business would be able to operate by the end of the year, he feared a wider impact.

“I think if this continues, the consequences for the economy could be devastating,” he suggested, adding that he would like to see the president take action.

“I think it's beyond time, quite honestly, for the Biden administration to sit down with them at the table to see what can't be done to get these things open again.”