@npr: Union dockworkers along East Coast and Gulf Coast ports are on strike, halting the movement of billions of dollars' worth of goods including furniture, paper, shoes, manufacturing components, farm machinery and much more. That includes more than half of all cargo containers coming into the U.S., or about a million containers a month. It also includes more than three-quarters of the containers carrying exports out — about 327,000 per month — according to the freight-tracking company Vizion. The pickets began just after midnight Tuesday, after talks between the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) and the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX), which represents ocean carriers and port operators, failed to yield a new contract. “We are now demanding $5 an hour increase in wages for each of the six years of a new ILA-USMX Master Contract,” said ILA President Harold Daggett. That would raise the top hourly wage from $39 to $69 by 2030. “Plus, we want absolute airtight language that there will be no automation or semi-automation." Despite pressure from House Republicans and more than 170 industry groups, who warned that a strike will have a devastating impact on supply chains and the broader economy, the Biden administration is standing firm in its decision to let the collective bargaining process play out.

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Region: US

Wednesday 02 October 2024 15:44:54 GMT