JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Jim Mirabella, Professor of Decision Sciences at Jacksonville University, says the ripple effect of an East Coast port strike could be devastating to our nation’s supply chain.
“I think this is worse than the pandemic and yet people don't even see it coming,” Mirabella said.
The International Longshoremen’s Association is threatening to strike at 12:01 a.m. October 1, 2024 if a deal isn’t reach. That would mean about 45,000 dockworkers along the East and Gulf coasts would stop working.
“The Longshoremen, who basically take the containers off of the ships and load them into the trains and whatnot, they are asking for two things, more money and they want less automation because their jobs are being replaced by robots,” Mirabella said.
He says he’s been stocking up on frozen produce and canned goods because if the strike happens, consumers would likely start to feel the impacts of it within a couple of days.
“Fifty-six percent of all imports to this country come in on the East Coast and it's all the East Coast ports from Boston down to Texas that are affected," Mirabella said. “So, if more than half of what we get overseas is not coming in, there's a problem and that means anything we want to get on this side of the country has to be shipped from the West Coast, which means they're going to pay more for it because now you have to pay for the fuel costs and whatnot. I expect the shelves to empty out.”
And he says imports of lumber and steel would also be affected, impacting the construction industry, and the retail and auto industries would feel the pinch too.
“Forty-five to 50% of all of our auto sales come from overseas," Mirabella added. "They won't be coming in. So, all the car sales are going to go away, the clothing sales are going to go away. Our produce is going to be hurt. It's going be bad and people aren't preparing for it.”
JAXPORT expects the strike to impact about one-third of its business, particularly international container volumes operated by SSA Jacksonville.
SSA Marine declined to comment.
In a statement posted on its website, JAXPORT said the following:
“The remaining two-thirds of JAXPORT’s business, including the majority of Puerto Rico cargo, will continue normally. In addition, none of JAXPORT’s 172 direct employees are ILA members, so all workers directly employed by JAXPORT will continue to work, which means all JAXPORT main gates and administrative functions will remain open regular operating hours. However, because JAXPORT’s terminal operators establish their own operating hours at their gated facilities, customers are encouraged to contact their terminal operator directly to confirm their specific operating hours and any operational impacts related to the potential strike.”