US east and Gulf coast port workers were set to go on strike last night with no talks scheduled to head off a stoppage threatening to halt container traffic from Maine to Texas and cost the US economy as much as US$5 billion a day.
The labor contract between the International Longshoremen’s Association union representing 45,000 port workers and the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) employer group was to expire last night, with negotiations at an impasse over pay.
A port strike would go ahead starting today at 12:01am local time, the union said on Sunday.
Photo: Bloomberg
The USMX “refuses to address a half-century of wage subjugation,” the union said in a statement.
If union members do walk off the job, it would be its first coast-wide strike since 1977, affecting ports that handle about half of the nation’s ocean shipping.
No negotiations are taking place and none were planned before the deadline, a person familiar with the matter said on condition of anonymity.
The union has previously said the strike would not impact military cargo shipments or cruise ship traffic.
However, a strike could stop the flow of everything from food to vehicles at major ports, potentially jeopardizing jobs and stoking inflation weeks ahead of the US presidential election.
Business Roundtable, which represents major US business leaders, said it was “deeply concerned about the potential strike at the east coast and Gulf coast ports.”
The group said a labor stoppage could cost the US economy billions of dollars daily, hurting businesses, workers and consumers across the country.
A short strike could have a limited economic impact given many companies have imported extra goods ahead of a possible work stoppage or shifted more shipments to west coast ports. However, a strike that continues for weeks could have serious economic impacts.
The strike could wedge labor-friendly US President Joe Biden into a no-win position as US Vice President Kamala Harris runs a razor-tight election race against former US president Donald Trump.
Biden on Sunday said he did not intend to intervene to prevent a walkout if dock workers failed to secure a new contract.
US presidents can intervene in labor disputes that threaten national security or safety by imposing an 80-day cooling-off period under the federal Taft-Hartley Act, forcing workers back on the job while negotiations continue.
Retailers that account for about half of all container shipping volume, and are headed into their all-important winter holiday sales season, have been busily employing backup plans.
WEAKER ACTIVITY: The sharpest deterioration was seen in the electronics and optical components sector, with the production index falling 13.2 points to 44.5 Taiwan’s manufacturing sector last month contracted for a second consecutive month, with the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) slipping to 48, reflecting ongoing caution over trade uncertainties, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The decline reflects growing caution among companies amid uncertainty surrounding US tariffs, semiconductor duties and automotive import levies, and it is also likely linked to fading front-loading activity, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “Some clients have started shifting orders to Southeast Asian countries where tariff regimes are already clear,” Lien told a news conference. Firms across the supply chain are also lowering stock levels to mitigate
IN THE AIR: While most companies said they were committed to North American operations, some added that production and costs would depend on the outcome of a US trade probe Leading local contract electronics makers Wistron Corp (緯創), Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), Inventec Corp (英業達) and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) are to maintain their North American expansion plans, despite Washington’s 20 percent tariff on Taiwanese goods. Wistron said it has long maintained a presence in the US, while distributing production across Taiwan, North America, Southeast Asia and Europe. The company is in talks with customers to align capacity with their site preferences, a company official told the Taipei Times by telephone on Friday. The company is still in talks with clients over who would bear the tariff costs, with the outcome pending further
Six Taiwanese companies, including contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), made the 2025 Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s largest firms by revenue. In a report published by New York-based Fortune magazine on Tuesday, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), ranked highest among Taiwanese firms, placing 28th with revenue of US$213.69 billion. Up 60 spots from last year, TSMC rose to No. 126 with US$90.16 billion in revenue, followed by Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) at 348th, Pegatron Corp (和碩) at 461st, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) at 494th and Wistron Corp (緯創) at
NEGOTIATIONS: Semiconductors play an outsized role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development and are a major driver of the Taiwan-US trade imbalance With US President Donald Trump threatening to impose tariffs on semiconductors, Taiwan is expected to face a significant challenge, as information and communications technology (ICT) products account for more than 70 percent of its exports to the US, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said on Friday. Compared with other countries, semiconductors play a disproportionately large role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development, Lien said. As the sixth-largest contributor to the US trade deficit, Taiwan recorded a US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US last year — up from US$47.8 billion in 2023 — driven by strong
RSS