With dock worker strike looking ‘likely,’ plans underway for orderly shutdown of NJ ports

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A looming strike by dock workers at ports along the East Coast now “looks likely,” a Port Authority official told the agency board Wednesday, and outlined steps the agency is taking should a strike shut down the Port of New York and New Jersey, which includes key facilities in Newark and Elizabeth.

The International Longshoremen’s Association has threatened to strike if a new contract with East Coast port terminal and shipping companies is not ironed out by the time the old contract expires Oct. 1.

That would shut down some of the busiest ports in the country, including the Port of New York and New Jersey — the nation’s second busiest — potentially disrupting the delivery of billions of dollars worth of consumer goods as the holiday shopping season approaches.

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The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is not involved in negotiations between the ILA and the United States Maritime Alliance, or USMX, a group of shipping and port terminal companies.

But the Port Authority, which leases the space at the ports to the shipping companies, is working to bring in as many ships as possible in the next few weeks and planning out an orderly shutdown of the ports, said Beth Rooney, the Port Authority’s ports director.

Once a strike occurs, all activity involving loading and unloading cargo containers and automobiles will come to a halt, Rooney said. Cruise ships will continue to operate.

The ports are unloading about 20 large container ships a week, and Rooney said they expect 150,000 containers to be unloaded before a strike hits.

Some carriers on Wednesday started issuing orders to their customers to embargo cargo from being sent to the ports for export so containers doesn’t start piling up at the port terminals, Rooney said.

The items that would need to travel the furthest to New Jersey ports from the Midwest would receive embargo orders first.

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“Many importers — retailers and other companies — have been aware for months of the possibility of a strike, and have therefore pushed forward their importing schedule so that a lot of holiday goods are already in the country and safe from a strike,” said Peter Tirschwell vice president for maritime and trade at S&P Global. 

In addition, shipping to ports on the West Coast has surged. But that rerouting process can drive up the cost of goods once they reach store shelves.

During a strike, container ships would moor offshore

Container ships with imports bound for Newark, Elizabeth and Staten Island, meanwhile, would end up mooring at designated sites in New York Harbor or off the coast while the strike lasts, or simply slow down, drift and loiter to ride the strike out in the Atlantic, Rooney said.

Once a strike was over, the U.S. Coast Guard, along with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, would coordinate the orderly arrival of waiting ships into the port facilities.

Rick Cotton, the Port Authority’s executive director, told the agency’s board on Wednesday that a strike “looks likely.”

The ILA union cut off contract talks in June after learning that a form of automation had been introduced at the Port of Mobile in Alabama, which they said violated the existing contract.

The USMX has said it has been unable to schedule new meetings with the union.

Could mean weeks of supply chain delays

A strike could impact key ports on the East and Gulf coasts, from Maine to Houston.

Tirschwell said that a strike of a few days could mean weeks of supply chain delays, while a strike lasting a week or longer would mean delays of over a month. 

The ILA, based in North Bergen, represents 85,000 workers across the East and Gulf coasts.

Its leaders are seeking significant pay hikes for their members, saying they deserve a fair share of the profits that shipping and port terminal companies have made as cargo volume remains higher after the demand caused during the COVID-19 pandemic.  

They also oppose efforts to automate the ports, which would reduce jobs for dock workers.

President Biden does not plan to intervene to prevent a strike at this time, Reuters has reported.

Presidents do have the authority to intervene in certain labor disputes by imposing an 80-day cooling-off period under the Taft-Hartley Act, forcing workers back on the job while negotiations continue.

“We’ve never invoked Taft-Hartley to break a strike and are not considering doing so now,” the Biden administration official told Reuters.

Staff writer Daniel Munoz contributed to this article.

This article contains some information from Reuters.