Longshoremen port strike unlikely to hinder holiday retail season, expert says

With dockworkers from Maine to Texas threatening to go on strike Tuesday, the impact of a work stoppage could be lessened because retailers have been accelerating imports for months, according to Ron Leibman, chair of Newark, New Jersey-headquartered law firm McCarter & English’s transportation, logistics and supply chain management practice.

“Retailers have been forward stocking, expecting this. Now, will that take care of the whole season? I don’t know, but it wouldn’t be the same as if they hadn’t prepared,” Leibman told FreightWaves in an interview. 

The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) said its 25,000 members will walk off the job when their employment contract with ports represented by the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) expires at midnight on Monday. 

Major issues on the bargaining table are wages, benefits and rules on port automation. Contract talks stalled in June, and no new meetings have been scheduled.

The ILA/USMX contract covers workers in container and roll-on/roll-off services at 36 ports in the U.S., including some of the nation’s largest in New York, Houston, Miami, New Orleans and Savannah, Georgia.