Dock workers, nearly 45,000 of them from as far north as Maine to as far south as Texas, have dropped their hardhats for a hard stance as they begin walking the picket line.
But the strikes haven’t had any direct impact on the West Coast, including the Port of LA -- at least, not yet.
Ports in California, Oregon, Washington, Hawaii, and British Columbia are unionized under the “International Longshore and Warehouse Union” instead, or ILWU. The ILWU isn’t expected to hold a similar stoppage. It ratified its most recent six-year contract last year, which garnered 75% overall approval from workers.
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The potential long term effects on the West Coast are still ambiguous. In an interview with CNBC Tuesday morning, Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka said several importers have “fractionally shifted" some of their allocations to the twin ports of LA, busiest container port in North America, and Long Beach.
Seroka said the ports are prepared if the strike forces a diversion of shipments from the East and Gulf coast ports to Southern California.
"The underlying US economy remains strong," Seroka said on CNBC. "These purchase orders that go in from retailers and manufacturers typically start off the process 90 to 100 days before cargo makes its way here to the West Coast. Those numbers continue to be strong.
"On the ground, for about a year and a half now, folks have been a little bit worried about protracted labor negotiations, and have told me they fractionally shipped some of their allocations over the past months here to Los Angeles and Long Beach."
Seroka also said Southern California ports are currently operating at 80-percent effective capacity and that they “still have room to grow.” There are no backlogs, he said.
CNBC reported the areas most affected by the strike stand to include auto parts, apparel, home furnishings, and sporting goods.
According to NBC News, the work stoppage is expected to cost the U.S. economy between several hundred million, and $4.5 billion per day.
"If this is relatively short strike and both sides can get back to the table, negotiate this contract and have workers return to the job, they can catch up pretty quickly," Seroka said. "I'm more concerned with the small to medium sized business that didn't necessarily have the wherewithal to move inventory around or over-prepare for this situation."
About $34 billion in cargo is currently en route to East Coast ports. Just a one-day strike could create nearly a week of congestion. If the strike reaches two weeks, congestion could extend as far as 2025, deeply affecting the upcoming holiday season.
