Depending on how long it lasts, the strike could disrupt the flow of goods into and out of the U.S., drive up prices and cause other economic impacts that could be consequential during election season. While many shippers and retailers were anticipating the strike, the closure of ports could potentially affect the availability of perishable goods such as fruit. President Joe Biden has the legal authority to end the strike, but has vowed not to use it in the short term. Ports in the western U.S. remain open.
The strike represents another disruption for already strained port supply chains. The COVID-19 pandemic caused shutdowns at global ports and related delays that raised the cost of imports. Shippers moved some business from Pacific coast ports, where delays and disruptions were concentrated in the U.S., to eastern ports during that time. Earlier this year, the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge near the Port of Baltimore set other eastern ports scrambling to take on diverted shipments.
The International Longshoremen’s Association has been indicating for months that its members were prepared to strike. The union is seeking significant wage increases as part of its negotiations with the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX), the association of port employers. The alliance published a statement on Monday saying it had made an offer to “increase wages by nearly 50 percent, triple employer contributions to employee retirement plans, [and] strengthen our health care options.”
Jared Brey
On Tuesday, Daggett released a statement demanding “absolute airtight language that there will be no automation or semi-automation” at eastern and Gulf ports.
The dispute reflects longstanding concerns about the impacts of technology on labor as well as new concerns about how artificial intelligence could affect various workforces.
According to a report on port infrastructure from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), automation is somewhat more common at foreign ports than at U.S. ports. Labor rules are one of the reasons why, though other factors are important as well, including the types of shipments that ports handle. Also, it requires big infrastructure investments to automate port functions, says Andrew Von Ah, an infrastructure director at the GAO who authored the report on port automation. Port operators look to justify those investments with operational savings.
“The unions are looking for some guarantee that we’re not going to lose a lot of jobs here, which of course ruins whatever hope you had of a business case,” Von Ah says. “[Port operators] need to have a return or know that they can get a return, and often where that comes is a reduction in labor costs.”
California lawmakers considered a bill in 2019 that would have given state regulators oversight of automation technology at certain ports. The legislation didn’t become law.
More unions are grappling with issues of automation as technology evolves. Screenwriters and journalists, for example, have fought to protect creative jobs amid the proliferation of generative AI.
The USMX has so far offered to keep existing language about automation in its contract with longshoremen. But the issue is likely to become a larger part of labor disputes as technology evolves.
“Organized labor really has begun to think real seriously about what would be the right kinds of controls and parameters that could be placed around [artificial intelligence] technology,” says Robert Bruno, director of the Labor Education Program at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, “Understanding that its introduction, at some level, seems inevitable.”
