US retailers, automakers and other businesses face ballooning freight rates as they make contingency plans for a strike that threatens to close nearly three dozen ports next week.
The International Longshoremen’s Association, which represents 25,000 dockworkers at ports between Maine and Texas, said it planned to walk off the job early Tuesday unless port operators agreed to substantially raise their wages and limit automation.
The strike would close east coast and gulf coast ports that handle roughly half of the goods imported via container, including food, pharmaceuticals, consumer electronics and apparel, costing the US economy as much as $5bn each day, JPMorgan analysts estimate.