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President Joe Biden’s administration heaped pressure on U.S. port employers to raise their offer to secure a labor deal with dockworkers on strike for a second day on Wednesday, choking half the country’s ocean shipping.
The strike by the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) union has blocked everything from food to automobile shipments across dozens of ports from Maine to Texas in a disruption analysts warn will cost the economy billions of dollars a day.
More than 38 container vessels were already backed up at U.S. ports by Tuesday, compared with just three on Sunday before the strike, according to Everstream Analytics.
USMX had offered the union a 50% wage hike, but the ILA’s fiery leader, Harold Daggett said the union is pushing for more, including a $5 per hour raise for each year of the new six-year contract and an end to port automation projects that threaten union jobs.
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