West coast ports remain open, because those dockworkers have a different union and negotiated a new contract a couple years ago.
What’s behind the strike? Wages are front and center. West coast longshoremen, under their new contract, will make $60 an hour by 2027; the East and Gulf coast longshoremen have been offered a contract that would raise their pay to $46.50 in 2027. They also want protection against losing their jobs to automation. Read story here.
President Biden, under political pressure to support labor as a major election approaches, won’t invoke Taft-Hartley Act to suspend the strike and impose an 80-day “cooling off” period (read that story here), despite the potential economic impacts (see story here).
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