White House sides with union as US dockworker strike enters second day

NEW YORK: President Joe Biden’s administration heaped pressure on US port employers to raise their offer to secure a labor deal with dockworkers, whose strike entered a second day on Wednesday, choking half the country’s ocean shipping.

The strike by the International Longshoremen’s Association union has blocked goods from food to automobile shipments across dozens of ports from Maine to Texas, a disruption that analysts warn will cost the economy billions of dollars a day.

More than 38 container vessels were already backed up at US ports by Tuesday, compared with just three on Sunday before the strike, according to Everstream Analytics.

“Foreign ocean carriers have made record profits since the pandemic, when longshoremen put themselves at risk to keep ports open. It’s time those ocean carriers offered a strong and fair contract that reflects ILA workers’ contribution to our economy and to their record profits,” Biden said in a post on X late on Tuesday.

He directed his team to monitor for potential price gouging that benefits foreign ocean carriers, the White House said.

The ILA, which represents 45,000 port workers, launched its strike on Tuesday, just after midnight after negotiations with the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) for a new six-year contract collapsed.

USMX had offered the union a 50% wage hike, but the ILA’s leader, Harold Daggett, said the union is pushing for more, including a $5-per-hour raise for each year of the new six-year contract and an end to port automation projects that threaten union jobs.