Dockworkers and the governor in South Carolina, the state with the lowest percentage of unionized workers, are digging in their heels over a labor dispute.
present big problems for the economy and the consumer across the channel labor is there moving containers off the dock. 22,000 longshoremen are working without a contract and have been since july. almost a year. friday and parts of saturday workers effectively shut down select terminals at several ports on the west coast. today i m told ports will be open. this is not a strike. even the union says you basically had select workers rank and file who took it upon themselves to voice displeasure to the shipping companies where the talks are by calling in sick or not showing up. long beach officials say the one terminal is closed is for operational, not labor reasons. so right now big picture consumers are not affected. cargo traffic on the west coast is down 30%. there is plenty of capacity to
Failed labor negotiations at West Coast ports is impacting red mead exports with periodic work stoppages, and growers are now spending an average of $500,000 a year on automation in response to labor shortage.