President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have been blamed for a massive dockworkers strike that is crippling the U.S. shipping industry from Texas to Maine.
The strike, which is estimated to cost $5 billion a day, started in the early hours of Tuesday and has slowed operations along the East Coast and affected more than 30 ports.
The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) – a union representing 45,000 port workers – announced it had closed its East Coast ports just after midnight.
Now, shipments of cars, fruits and vegetables, electronics, furniture, beauty products and more will be held up, which could cost the US as much as $5 billion a day.
And the head of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters — who spectacularly declined to endorse Kamala Harris in the 2024 race — has a brief message for the White House: “Stay the hell out of this fight.”
Workers participate in a port strike at Port Newark, Tuesday, October 1, 2024, in Bayonne, NJ
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“The U.S. government must stay out of this fight and allow union workers to retain the wages and benefits they have earned,” Teamsters CEO Sean O’Brien said in a statement.
“For too long, corporations have been able to rely on political puppets to help them deprive working people of their inherent influence.”
The Teamsters “stand in full solidarity” with ILA in its “fight for a fair and equitable contract with the ocean carriers represented by USMX.”
Although his union is not directly involved in the dockworkers’ actions, he is conducting similar organized actions using his approximately 1.3 million members as a bargaining tool.
Republicans were also outraged that the White House allowed negotiations to continue with no resolution in sight.
Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson blames the government for “making life harder for everyone” due to the current state of the economy.
“This administration’s failure to reach a resolution between the International Longshoremen’s Association Union and the US Maritime Alliance will only worsen the economic pain caused by four years of skyrocketing inflation, falling wages and fewer jobs,” he said in a statement obtained by DailyMail.com. .
“Just one day of disrupted activity will have devastating consequences for the economy, and hardworking American families will feel the impact of higher prices, empty shelves and lost economic output.”
“Solving this problem requires leadership that the Biden-Harris administration has failed to provide,” the Louisiana Republican continued.
“They must ensure that both sides remain at the table, continue to negotiate in good faith and ultimately reach an agreement that keeps workers employed and goods flowing through our ports, including those in Louisiana.”
President Joe Biden speaks from the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Monday, September 30, 2024, about his administration’s efforts to help recover from the aftermath of Hurricane Helene
Chairman Mike Johnson’s office wrote that 85,000 workers are on strike on Tuesday
Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama posted on X on Monday: ‘“50,000 union workers are threatening to strike at midnight tonight at East Coast and Gulf Coast ports, shutting down our nation’s supply chain and crippling the economy.”
“The Biden-Harris administrator doesn’t care.”
ILA was negotiating a deal with the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX), a group of maritime companies, before the September 30 deadline, but the two failed to reach an agreement.
Tuesday’s strike would be the largest collective action by dock workers in fifty years.
Harold Daggett, the leader of the ILA, has said that ship operator Maersk has not listened to workers’ concerns about pay increases or automating jobs.
USMX has said it has offered to increase wages by nearly 50 percent from an earlier proposal, according to a statement released Monday.
However, Dagget said the union wants more, north of a 60 percent increase, CNBC reported.
When asked Monday evening whether he would intervene in the strikes, Biden replied bluntly: “No.”
His reasoning is that he does not believe in the Taft-Hartley Act, a 1947 law that regulates the power of unions.
President Joe Biden said Monday he would not intervene in the strikes
The strikes could continue indefinitely until a deal is reached between USMX and ILA
“Because there’s collective bargaining going on, and I don’t believe in Taft-Hartley,” he told reporters.
Ports affected by the strikes include: Port of New York and New Jersey, Port Wilmington, Port of Baltimore, Port of Norfolk, Port of Charleston, Port of Savannah, Port of Jacksonville, PortMiami, Port Tampa Bay, Port of Mobile, Port of New Orleans, Port of Houston and more.
Picketers in Philadelphia began marching around midnight carrying signs that read, “Work Now Without a Fair Contract.”
Similar scenes have played out at ports on the East Coast.