By Brian Massie, A Watchman on the Wall
We did not need another issue to worry about, but the reality is staring us in the face. With the looming longshoremen strike on the East Coast, we may want to stock up on goods before we face the inevitable shortages on store shelves.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/09/28/port-strike-longshoremen-union-shipping
Disruption looms at East Coast ports as longshoremen prepare to strike
By Ian Duncan and
September 28, 2024 at 7:00 a.m. EDT
A walkout would be a blow to the economy and leave the White House under pressure to order dockworkers back to their jobs.
Excerpts from the article:
Thousands of longshoremen at ports from New England to Texas are set to strike early Tuesday in the first walkout of its kind in almost half a century, freezing commercial shipping on a massive scale and disrupting the national economy weeks before the presidential election.
A strike would be the biggest disruption to the flow of goods in and out of the country since the height of the pandemic. Even a short-lived work stoppage would snarl shipping and create havoc in supply chains for weeks. Cargo ranging from cars to electronics, from food to furniture, would be stuck on ships offshore. Each day a strike lasts could cost the U.S. economy up to $1 billion, according to analysts.
Longshoremen are responsible for loading and unloading cargo at ports. The job includes working the cranes that haul containers on and off huge cargo ships as well as maintaining equipment.
“A strike like this where half the country is closed down, American consumers will pay,” Kidd said. “If it goes on for a long period of time, folks will be unemployed. This is not one sector. This is the U.S. economy.”
Categories: Community Activism, National News