United states where ports all across the East And Gulf coasts including here in baltimore have virtually ground to a halt. It means goods ranging from cars to machinery and fresh fruit and vegtables are going to find a lot tougher to get into or out of the worlds biggest economy. An estimated 16,000 workers have stopped working over demands for more pay and less automation. The stoppages could cost the us economy as much as 5bn a day according to the Investment Bankjp Morgan but other experts say it will be less than that. One knock on could be as many as 100,000 people finding themselves temporarily out of work as the impact of the stoppage spreads. 0ur Correspondent Michelle fleury is at the Port Of Newark in newjersey. What other people telling you about how angry they are but also how long this might last . This is one of three dozen ports that are on strike as of midnight last night, and work is basically raring to go, blasting music this morning, i saw some children walking aroun
association and the shipping companies over what are called, container royalties of the those are salary supplements based on how much each container weighs. the heavier the container, the more the longshoreman gets paid. the owners wanted those capped. the workers did not. this from a federal mediator in d.c. quote, the container royalty payment issue has been agreed upon in principle by the party subject to achieving overall bargaining agreement. the parties have agreed to additional extension of 30 days to negotiate all remaining issues. if they don t though, we return to a sweeping strike, freezing every container at all the ports with electronics, airline ports, clothes, textiles, just about every consumer product you can think of are in those containers. this involves every container shipping port from boston to houston. billions and billions of dollars worth of goods, both imports to buy and exports to sell.
the thumb and gun of big labor threats. the l.a. and long beach strike that lasted a little over a week around thanksgiving was estimated by some estimates to have cost a billion dollar a day. this would have been far worse. i don t think it s over. we re not out of woods. we don t know the details. and the sticking point has been these container royalties, an issue i ve covered more than a year. what people need to know is it s a an archaic holdover from the 60s and 70s, essentially every longshoreman on the east coast, on the gulf coast, is paid something on the order of $16,000 per head for the containers fees. it s a relic from the age when unions were very concerned when america was moving towards modernization. it was basically a payoff to big
increased in november for the third straight month to reach the highest level in two-and-a-half years. major port strike has been averted for now after mediators got the long shoreman s union to postpone it for month to work out time detail osafter new contract. correspondent phil keeting is following that story from miami. at least one end of the year cliff has been averted for now. container cliff. there will be no east and gulf coast port strike happening this weekend. but both sides still have much to work out. if they don t, five weeks from now will be right back to a sweeping strike with great consequences. a strike in long beach in los angeles a few weeks ago. that was close. if you cost that area, $1 billion a day. sticking point has been the container royalties. salary supplements for long shoremen. heavier the container, the more they get paid. the owners want to cap the royalties at last year s levels to 15,000 long shoreman did not. this from the federal mediator
did in fact budge, whether it was the longshoremen or the shipping company owners or it could have been both sides coming together and reaching a negotiated deal. hard to imagine with what we see in washington, d.c. but neither side is talking. the key points had been over container royalties. you see the heavier each container is, the more money each long shore had man gets paid to take it off and put it on the truck. the owners of the companies wanted to cap the fees, the royalties, at last year s levels while the 15,000 strong longshoremen did not. neither side s talking but both sides say a deal on that an agreement has been reached. a quote from the federal mediator. the container royalty payment issue has been agreed upon, subject to achieving an overall collective bargaining agreement.