East Coast port strike: ILA union rejects wage hike offer near 50% as shutdown at midnight nears

Oct 01, 2024 at 02:35 PM CST
A last-ditch effort by ports ownership to get the ILA union back to the bargaining table with a wage hike offer of nearly 50% over six years was rejected by the union on Monday, with a strike at ports up and down the East Coast and along the Gulf Coast set to begin after midnight. Logistics executives told CNBC every remaining hour on Monday was critical in moving out as much trade as possible before a shutdown that will do serious damage to the functioning of the U.S. economy. Based on data from ImportGenius, which tracks the bills of lading — the digital receipts of cargo containers — a total of 54,456 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) arrived on Friday at the 14 ports operating under the master contract between the International Longshoremen’s Association and the U.S. Maritime Alliance (USMX) which expires at midnight Monday. The approximate value of that freight was upward of $2.7 billion, based on an MDS Transmodal estimate of $50,000 per container. For the weekdays between Sept. 23-27, a total of 273,417 TEUs were imputed through customs at these ports with a value of approximately $13.67 billion.

Oct 01, 2024 at 02:35 PM CST

A last-ditch effort by ports ownership to get the ILA union back to the bargaining table with a wage hike offer of nearly 50% over six years was rejected by the union on Monday, with a strike at ports up and down the East Coast and along the Gulf Coast set to begin after midnight.

Logistics executives told CNBC every remaining hour on Monday was critical in moving out as much trade as possible before a shutdown that will do serious damage to the functioning of the U.S. economy.

Based on data from ImportGenius, which tracks the bills of lading — the digital receipts of cargo containers — a total of 54,456 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) arrived on Friday at the 14 ports operating under the master contract between the International Longshoremen’s Association and the U.S. Maritime Alliance (USMX) which expires at midnight Monday. The approximate value of that freight was upward of $2.7 billion, based on an MDS Transmodal estimate of $50,000 per container. For the weekdays between Sept. 23-27, a total of 273,417 TEUs were imputed through customs at these ports with a value of approximately $13.67 billion.