45,000 union maritime workers are expected to strike Tuesday as the current labor contract between the International Longshoremen’s Association and the U.S. Maritime Alliance is set to expire. The ports which would be hit by the strike handle around half of the ocean cargo in the U.S.
“Mirko Woitzik, global director of Intelligence for Everstream Analytics said that his company’s analysis of historic congestion and strike data for U.S. ports concludes that every 24-hour shutdown of all East and Gulf Coast ports would result in operational backlogs that could take up to 7 days to clear,” writes Senior Editor Adrienne Selko.