Retail chains, importers and distributors serving a wide range of stores implemented proactive measures to minimize the impact of the anticipated East and Gulf coast port strike. The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) that called the strike represents 45,000 members in 36 ports handling almost half of U.S. imports and a high proportion of exports.
In an earnings call on September 26th, Ron Vachris, CEO of Costco Wholesale described advanced shipping of products for the holiday season. He stated, “We cleared the ports and we have done several things that we could to get holiday goods in ahead of this timeframe. We looked at alternative plans that we could execute by moving goods to different ports and coming across the country if needed.” It is of concern that even a strike of short duration would result in disruption. It would take weeks to clear accumulated cargo containers and move them to their destinations.
Shipments of eggs and poultry meat to Caribbean markets would have been affectedl , benefiting competitors including Brazil. Shortages of imported foods would havel occurred with a prolonged strike and at the very least, disruption would have added to cost and represented an inflationary factor in an economy that has managed to attain a 2.5 percent level, down from approximately 9 percent over 12 months, due to appropriate management by the Federal Reserve.
The Administration announced that it would not invoke the Taft-Hartley Act and force port workers to strike. This would have been be politically unacceptable to unions some of which appear to be wavering in their traditional support for the Democratic ticket.
The White House intervened by sending the Acting Secretary of Labor and the Secretary of Transport to participate in negotiations and serve as go-betweens to engender an agreement between the ILA and the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) resulting in a suspension through January 15th 2025.