The Port of New York and New Jersey was preparing for an expected strike by the International Longshoremen’s Association, whose dockworkers were set to walk off the job at midnight.
The strike was expected to come after months of contract talks between the ILA and the container shipping consortium United States Marine Alliance stalled.
A Longshoremen’s strike would effectively cripple the port — the East Coast’s largest — as well as dozens of ports along the Eastern seaboard and the Gulf of Mexico.
“I urge USMX and the ILA to come to an agreement that respects workers, [and] that ensures the flow of commerce,” Gov. Hochul said Monday at a press briefing in Manhattan. “The stakes are very high.”
“We’re deeply concerned about the impact that a strike could have on our supply chains,” she added.
The longshoremen’s union has been calling for wage increases and contract language limiting the implementation of automation at the region’s ports.
“The Ocean Carriers represented by USMX want to enjoy rich billion-dollar profits that they are making in 2024, while they offer ILA Longshore Workers an unacceptable wage package that we reject,” the union said in a statement.
An ILA strike would halt all loading and unloading of containerized cargo and automobile shipping in the city’s ports, which span from Brooklyn and Staten Island across the bay to Elizabeth, N.J.
Bulk cargo — including the shipment of road salt, cement, scrap metal, municipal waste and orange juice — would continue unabated.
The Port Authority has extended hours for truck access in an effort to clear cargo containers from the ports, so that as little cargo as possible is behind a picket line.
Hochul said Monday that the majority of drugs and pharmaceuticals coming into the state arrive via air freight, and are expected to be unaffected by a strike. Similarly, she said, “We’re not concerned at all about any shortages of food.”
Thousands of containers are seen at Port Newark/Elizabeth waiting to be transported by trucks in this file photo. (Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Daily News)
Asked how long a strike could go before New Yorkers started seeing shortages or rising prices, Commissioner of Homeland Security Jackie Bray said, “Weeks — not days, weeks.”
“Most of what we would consider as consumers — the things we want to go out and buy — are here,” she said. “They’re in warehouses. They’ve been here for a long time.”
Still, key raw materials for various industries — or even individual commodities that arrive in containerized freight, like bananas — could run thin if a strike runs long.
The longshoremen almost walked off of U.S. Marine Alliance docks in 2019, but a contract extension brokered by federal mediators kept the ports staffed.
A longshoremen strike in 1977 — the last major labor action at the East Coast ports — closed down shipping for 12 days.