Around 45,000 dockworkers at 36 ports on strike at midnight

Strike commences across US eastern seaboard

Sam Chambers October 1 https://splash247.com/strike-commences-across-us-eastern-seaboard/

Around 45,000 dockworkers at 36 ports stretching from Maine to Texas across America’s eastern seaboard went on strike at midnight in the largest terminal industrial action seen anywhere in the world this century.

The decision to down tools came despite a last ditch offer from employers for a near 50% pay increase, with the White House maintaining it will not step in to resolve the strike. Inevitable vessel queues are now beginning to emerge at multiple American ports, compounded by an ongoing strike at Montreal, Canada’s largest eastern port.

The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) union stated: “ILA longshore workers deserve to be compensated for the important work they do keeping American commerce moving and growing. It’s disgraceful that most of these foreign-owned shipping companies are engaged in a ‘Make and Take’ operation: They want to make their billion-dollar profits at United States ports, and off the backs of American ILA longshore workers, and take those earnings out of this country and into the pockets of foreign conglomerates.”

ILA president Harold Daggett commented via a post on Facebook yesterday: “Yes, I am fighting for us every fucking day, these greedy bastard corporations overseas all they want is money, money, money, and they don’t give a shit about us.”

Danish liner consultancy eeSea currently counts 260 boxships with a forecasted arrival into strike affected ports in the next seven days.