The last major longshore workers strike on the East Coast was in 1977. In the nearly half century since the nation’s Atlantic and Gulf ports have been quiet. This has given such retailers as Home Depot, Amazon, Target and IKEA the confidence to redirect sizable volumes of merchandise shipped in containers from the West Coast, a hotbed of labor activism, through Savannah, Ga., Charleston, S.C., Norfolk, Va., and New York.
That may soon be over. The labor peace that has been a foundation of East Coast supply chains is now under threat. The president of the East and Gulf Coast dockworkers union, the International Longshoremen’s Association, told members on Nov. 4 to stash away money in preparation “for the possibility of a coast-wide strike.” He declared the union will refuse to extend its current contract with ocean carriers, which expires on Sept. 30, 2024.
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