By South China Morning Post | Created at 2024-10-01 06:18:22 | Updated at 2024-10-01 09:28:08
3 hours ago
Tens of thousands of dockworkers on the US East and Gulf coasts went on strike after failing to reach a new contract deal with port owners – a major industrial action that threatens to disrupt shipping and cost the US economy billions weeks before the presidential election.
A six-year contract between the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and the US Maritime Alliance (USMX) expired at midnight on Monday.
Workers began picketing at the Port of Philadelphia shortly after midnight, walking in a circle at a rail crossing outside the port and chanting “No work without a fair contract”.
A strike, affecting 36 ports, would be the ILA’s first since 1977. The association, which represents 45,000 dockworkers, threatened to shut down some of the country’s main trade gateways to secure a bigger slice of higher freight rates – caused in part by Houthi rebel attacks in the Red Sea.
Hours before the deadline, the US Chamber of Commerce called on US President Joe Biden to intervene.
