Source: Reuters
“President Joe Biden’s administration heaped pressure on U.S. port employers to raise their offer to secure a labor deal with dockworkers on strike for a second day on Wednesday, choking half the country’s ocean shipping. The strike by the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) union has blocked everything from food to automobile shipments across dozens of ports from Maine to Texas in a disruption analysts warn will cost the economy billions of dollars a day. … ‘Foreign ocean carriers have made record profits since the pandemic, when Longshoremen put themselves at risk to keep ports open. It’s time those ocean carriers offered a strong and fair contract that reflects ILA workers’ contribution to our economy and to their record profits,’ Biden said in a post on X late on Tuesday.”