Port of Philadelphia at near standstill amid historic US dockworker strike
PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Thousands of dockworkers went on strike at dozens of ports along the East and Gulf coasts early Tuesday morning, raising fears of higher consumer prices ahead of the holiday season.
The Port of Philadelphia was at a standstill as workers walked the picket lines.
The facilities that are not operating during the strike are the Packer Avenue Marine Terminal, the Tioga Marine Terminal, Pier 122 and Pier 80.
Facilities still in operation are the SouthPort Auto Terminal Vehicle Processing Center and Pier 98 Annex (autos), port officials said. Administration offices also remain open.
The Port of Philadelphia, along with the Port of Wilmington - which is also impacted - are among the nation's top importers of fresh fruits like bananas and other perishable items, including meat.
"Where we will see the price increase mostly is in some of the grocery items, perishable items, bananas, berries and those kinds of things," said Dr. Subodha Kumar, of Temple University's Fox School of Business, who is hopeful it won't come to that.
"I do not anticipate it to go very long, given all the optics. I think this a matter of a few weeks, but they have to come in common ground, which we do not see right now," added Kumar.
At issue: wage increases and concerns over automated technology.
"They have some machinery in there that's doing work with no human intervention whatsoever. We never had that. These foreign companies are putting machines in, taking American jobs away and we're not going to let that happen," said Daniel Gallagher, president of ILA local 1242.
Leaders of the International Longshoreman's Association (ILA), the union representing East Coast and Gulf Coast dockworkers, say they'll keep the strike going for as long as necessary.
"ILA longshore workers deserve to be compensated for the important work they do keeping American commerce moving and growing," the ILA told ABC News in a statement on Monday. "Meanwhile, ILA dedicated longshore workers continue to be crippled by inflation due to USMX's unfair wage packages."
The U.S. Maritime Alliance, or USMX, an organization bargaining on behalf of the dockworkers' employers, declined to respond to an ABC News request for comment.
The ports account for more than half of the nation's container imports, facilitating the transport of everything from toys to fresh fruit to nuclear reactors, JPMorgan senior equity analyst Brian Ossenbeck said in a report shared with ABC News.
A prolonged work stoppage of several weeks or months could rekindle inflation for some goods and trigger layoffs at manufacturers as raw materials dry up, experts said.
President Joe Biden retains the power to prevent or halt a strike under the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce sent a letter to Biden on Monday urging the White House to intervene, which it has previously said it will not do.
The White House told ABC News in a statement that it has been in contact with both the union and management in recent days.
"This weekend, senior officials have been in touch with USMX representatives urging them to come to a fair agreement fairly and quickly - one that reflects the success of the companies. Senior officials have also been in touch with the ILA to deliver the same message," White House spokesperson Robyn Patterson said.
A prolonged East Coast and Gulf Coast port strike could moderately increase prices for a range of goods, experts told ABC News. That upward pressure on prices would result from a shortage of products caught up in the supply chain blockage, leaving too many dollars chasing after too few items, they added.
Food products are especially vulnerable to an uptick in prices, since food could spoil if suppliers sent the products ahead of time to minimize the strike impact, as they have done for some other goods, Adam Kamins, a senior director of economic research at Moody's Analytics, told ABC News.
Additionally, a significant share of the nation's imported auto parts pass through the ports impacted by a potential strike, which could cause an increase in vehicle prices if the strike persists.
Price increases have slowed dramatically from a peak in 2022, but inflation remains higher than the Federal Reserve's target rate of 2%. A strike could prevent further progress, according to Kamins.
"We're not talking about prices skyrocketing by any means, but I think it halts the momentum we've had over the last year or so getting inflation back in the bottle," he said.
In 2002, a strike among workers at West Coast ports lasted 11 days before then-President George W. Bush invoked the Taft-Hartley Act and ended the standoff. However, the last time East Coast and Gulf Coast workers went on strike, in 1977, the work stoppage lasted seven weeks.
Tuesday's strike follows high-profile strikes undertaken last year by auto workers as well as Hollywood writers and actors. Most recently, 33,000 Boeing workers walked off the job in early September, demanding better pay and retirement benefits.
"Trade unions all over the country have been going out on strike," Sriram Narayanan, a professor of supply chain management at Michigan State University, told ABC News. "We're seeing that happen now at the ports."
