Fears of a prolonged disruption to US maritime trade and subsequent supply bottlenecks had already led to minor panic buying. But now a tentative agreement has been reached between striking dock workers on the US East Coast and the Gulf Coast. The strike is over for now.
The term of the current contract has been extended until January 15 to continue negotiations, as announced by the ILA union. The large-scale work stoppage lasting just a few weeks is said to have raised concerns about supply bottlenecks. “The strike is over,” local union boss Scott Cowan told CBS in Baltimore.
According to him, the union wants to accept the offer of an income increase of 61.5 percent over the six-year contract term. In addition, measures to prevent job losses due to automation will be negotiated in the coming months.
Panic buying and empty shelves
The workers went on strike on the night of October 1. Even a new employer offer with an income increase of almost 50 percent did not stop her. The first panic purchases of toilet paper and other items were not long in coming. Shoppers reported on online platforms about empty shelves or dwindling stocks in major stores like Walmart or Costco – similar to what happened at the beginning of the Corona crisis. More than 90 percent of the toilet paper sold in the US is produced domestically.
Hundreds of millions of dollars in damage every day
About half of U.S. foreign trade container throughput is handled through East Coast ports. The strike by tens of thousands of members of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) union is believed to have cost hundreds of millions of dollars a day.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.