Here’s How the Dockworkers Strike Could Affect Us

Author of How to Prep When You’re Broke and Bloom Where You’re Planted online course

Just in case getting supplies isn’t expensive enough (or difficult enough in the areas hit by Hurricane Helene), now the dockworkers from Maine to Texas have gone on strike. And whether they win or lose their standoff, it’s the American consumers who will lose the most.

Last night, at midnight, the contract between the ports and nearly 50,000 members of the International Longshoremen’s Association expired. Workers immediately walked off the job. Thirty-six ports are currently affected by the strike.

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What do the dockworkers want?

Well, your mileage may vary. Here’s their statement:

In a statement to ABC News early Tuesday, the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) confirmed the union’s first coastwide strike in nearly 50 years was underway. The statement said that “tens of thousands of ILA rank-and-file members” started to set up picket lines at shipping ports up and down the Atlantic and Gulf coasts as of 12:01 am.

“We are prepared to fight as long as necessary, to stay out on strike for whatever period of time it takes, to get the wages and protections against automation our ILA members deserve,” ILA President Harold Daggett said.

Other information was added.

“We are prepared to fight as long as necessary, to stay out on strike for whatever period of time it takes, to get the wages and protections against automation our ILA members deserve,” Daggett said in the statement. “They must now meet our demands for this strike to end.”

The fight against having their jobs taken over by robot dockworkers is understandable. They note that the shipping companies made billions of dollars during the pandemic, and they feel some of that should trickle down.

The union’s opening offer in the talks was for a 77% pay raise over the six-year life of the contract, with president Harold Daggett saying it’s necessary to make up for inflation and years of small raises.

ILA members make a base salary of about $81,000 per year, but some can pull in over $200,000 annually with large amounts of overtime.

The US Maritime Alliance is representing the ports in negotiations.

…Monday evening, the alliance said it had increased its offer to 50% raises over six years, and it pledged to keep limits on automation in place from the old contract.

Nobody seems to know, as of this morning, how far apart the dockworkers and the alliance are.

How will this affect us?

Experts seem to have varying opinions on how Americans will be affected by this. First, it’s pretty clear that the longer this goes on, the fewer supplies will be reaching the shelves in our local stores.

But for general consumer items, a lot of companies stocked up because they knew this was coming. So we may not immediately see shortages of non-perishable goods.

At the same time, in a pandemic lockdown flashback, I still ordered some extra coffee and toilet paper in bulk. You may also want to contact The Wellness Company to get ahold of some antibiotics and essential medications in the event pharmaceuticals are involved.

The shortages we will notice first would be perishable items. There’s a clock on getting those from the cargo ships to the grocery stores and with even the slightest delay, you’ll be hard pressed to find any fruits or vegetables that come in through the eastern ports or the ones in the Gulf of Mexico.

Especially, it appears, bananas:

The ports affected by the strike handle 3.8 million metric tons of bananas each year, or 75% of the nation’s supply, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation.

The shortages will come when other folks realize that their normal choices aren’t available at the grocery store and panic their way to the canned goods aisle. So, if you were planning on doing a stock-up of canned food, I’d suggest you do it now before the non-preppers notice that they can’t easily get fresh fruits and vegetables.

But if the situation continues, that’s when things will start to get hairy.

…If it goes more than a few weeks, a work stoppage would significantly snarl the nation’s supply chain, potentially leading to higher prices and delays in goods reaching households and businesses.

If drawn out, the strike will force businesses to pay shippers for delays and cause some goods to arrive late for peak holiday shopping season — potentially impacting delivery of anything from toys or artificial Christmas trees to cars, coffee and fruit…

…“If the strikes go ahead, they will cause enormous delays across the supply chain, a ripple effect which will no doubt roll into 2025 and cause chaos across the industry,” noted Jay Dhokia, founder of supply chain management and logistics firm Pro3PL.

J.P. Morgan estimated that a strike that shuts down East and Gulf coast ports could cost the economy $3.8 billion to $4.5 billion per day, with some of that recovered over time after normal operations resume.

And I think we all know where those billions of dollars will come from.

Our pockets.

It’s almost certain that prices will go up.

Food products are especially vulnerable to an uptick in prices, since food could spoil if suppliers sent the products ahead of time to minimize the strike impact, as they have done for some other goods, Adam Kamins, a senior director of economic research at Moody’s Analytics, told ABC News.

Additionally, a significant share of the nation’s imported auto parts pass through the ports impacted by a potential strike, which could cause an increase in vehicle prices if the strike persists.

If you need any repairs on your vehicle, I suggest that you get them done now before parts become scarce.

“President” Biden has said that he will not intervene in the strike, though through the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act, he could call a halt to it, or at least delay it for 80 days while the sides negotiated.

What are your thoughts on this?

Will the strike continue for long? Do you think that we’ll see shortages and increased prices again? Do you feel that the White House should intervene?

Let’s discuss it in the comments section.

About Daisy

Daisy Luther is a coffee-swigging, adventure-seeking, globe-trotting blogger. She is the founder and publisher of three websites.  1) The Organic Prepper, which is about current events, preparedness, self-reliance, and the pursuit of liberty; 2)  The Frugalite, a website with thrifty tips and solutions to help people get a handle on their personal finances without feeling deprived; and 3) PreppersDailyNews.com, an aggregate site where you can find links to all the most important news for those who wish to be prepared. Her work is widely republished across alternative media and she has appeared in many interviews.

Daisy is the best-selling author of 5 traditionally published books, 12 self-published books, and runs a small digital publishing company with PDF guides, printables, and courses at SelfRelianceand Survival.com You can find her on Facebook, Pinterest, Gab, MeWe, Parler, Instagram, and Twitter.