Just after midnight on Tuesday, dock workers started gathering on the picket lines near New Orleans and Baton Rouge ports, carrying signs that read "Machines Don't Feed Families" and other messages as they joined?the first major longshoremen's strike in more than 40 years?at East and Gulf Coast ports.
By midmorning, more than 100 workers were staged around the Felicity Street entrance to the Port of New Orleans, where around 1,000 trucks a day usually drive up to the Napoleon Avenue terminal to transfer containers with products that range from coffee and frozen poultry to medical equipment and plastic components.
There was a cacophony of car horns as drivers moving along Tchoupitoulas Street tooted in support of the striking workers.
About 15 longshoremen were picketing at the Port of Greater Baton Rouge Tuesday morning, according to Executive Director Jay Hardman.?
The industrial action, if it persists, threatens to severely disrupt the supply chain in New Orleans, Baton Rouge and at other major ports from Texas to the U.S. East Coast, which handle more than half the nation's container trade. The Conference Board, a New York-based think tank, estimated that the strike could cost the economy $540 million a day, as container ships are rerouted and businesses scramble to secure supplies.
Fourth generation longshoreman Henry Glover, ILA Local 3000 president, poses as International Longshoremen Association members strike for the first time since 1977 at the Felicity Street entrance to Port NOLA in New Orleans, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (Photo by Sophia Germer, The Times-Picayune)
The leadership of the International Longshoremen's Association, which represents 85,000 members, have said that the roughly one-half of its membership who work in container shipping operations are prepared to stay off the job for as long as it takes to win wage increases and guarantees about job security.
"It's about wages, automation and jurisdiction," Henry Glover, president of the ILA Local 3000 in New Orleans, explained while standing at the Felicity Street picket line Tuesday.
"I'm a fourth generation longshoreman and been doing this 36 years but we've never been through nothing like this before," said Glover, 51. "We plan on sticking it out until it's over with."
Also walking the picket line on Tuesday was Steve Adams, 57, a Slidell resident with five kids who's been a longshoremen for 30 years.
"I believe we're doing the right thing trying to keep automation out of our ports for future generations," he said.
Still far apart on wage increases
The longshoremen have demanded their wages be increased by an average of 77% to account for inflation and productivity gains since their last master contract was agreed six years ago.
They also want guarantees that their jobs are protected from automation, as unmanned cranes and other robotic equipment replace some of their traditional tasks.
The longshoremen have made little progress in months negotiating a new six-year master contract with the shipping companies' central negotiators, the United States Maritime Alliance.
On Monday evening, the alliance said it had increased its offer to 50% raises over six years, and it pledged to keep limits on automation in place from the old contract.
“We are hopeful that this could allow us to fully resume collective bargaining around the other outstanding issues in an effort to reach an agreement,” the alliance statement said.
The Port of New Orleans is not a direct party to the talks, but spokesperson Kimberly Curth noted Tuesday that local dockworkers already have worked out terms with the two major operators in New Orleans, Ports America and the New Orleans Terminal consortium. But the ILA has not come to the master agreement across all of the East Coast ports, which needs to be resolved.
She said the port extended work hours over the weekend to help shippers clear their recent arrivals, but otherwise they can only hope for a speedy resolution.
A person who declined to give their name holds a sign up to passing vehicles as the International Longshoremen Association members strike at the Felicity Street entrance to Port NOLA in New Orleans, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (Photo by Sophia Germer, The Times-Picayune)
Glover said that in addition to wages, "jurisdiction" is also a big concern, referring to long-running disputes about shippers using non-union sub-contractors for cargo handling in parts of the port system.
How many workers are involved?
In Louisiana, about 800 container cargo workers in New Orleans and Baton Rouge were expected to participate in the strike. However, the union has not ruled out secondary actions that could hit shipping of bulk and break bulk items, like petroleum products and large pieces of industrial equipment.
The Port of New Orleans handles almost all of the state's container ship volume, with about 400,000 standard 20-foot container units passing through last year. In the three months through May, it handled a record 133,845 containers, which was up 19% from the same period the previous year as shippers rushed to stockpile ahead the strike. Baton Rouge's port moved about 20,500 containers last year.
Port NOLA's Napoleon Avenue wharves, pictured here in October 2022. (Photo by Chris Granger | The Times-Picayune)?
The Louisiana Association of Business and Industry, a lobbying group, noted that the state's ports had handled goods valued at about $53 billion last year.
LABI CEO Will Green joined other business leaders and Republican politicians in blaming the Biden Administration for not using its powers under the Taft-Hartley Act to postpone strike action for 80 days to allow more time for negotiations.
U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, the ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee, on Tuesday reiterated his call for White House action.
"It is imperative the White House use its authority to push for a quick resolution and avoid deepening this crisis," he said.
President Joe Biden, in a statement issued by the White House on Tuesday, urged the shippers to offer the longshoremen a "fair contract."
"Ocean carriers have made record profits since the pandemic and in some cases profits grew in excess of 800 percent compared to their profits prior to the pandemic," Biden said. "I have urged (the shippers' alliance), which represents a group of foreign-owned carriers, to come to the table and present a fair offer to the workers of the International Longshoremen’s Association that ensures they are paid appropriately in line with their invaluable contributions."
Costly stoppage
A strike by East and Gulf Coast port workers hasn't occurred since 1977, when container shipping volume was vastly smaller than it is now.
The longshoremen on the West Coast are represented by a different union and agreed a new five-year contract last summer.
The West Coast longshoremen last went on strike in 2002 and were out for 11 days. Economists have estimated it took about six months for the supply chain to return to normal and cost the U.S. economy almost $2 billion a day. President George W. Bush invoked the Taft-Hartley Act in October, 2002 to bring the parties back to the negotiating table.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.