How the Port Worker Strike Will Hit Wisconsin

For every day the port worker strike goes on, it will take one week for the economy to recover.

That’s according to national logistics experts attending the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) annual convention in Nashville this week. None of them have any idea how long the strike could last. Few believed it would actually happen in the first place.

“The seriousness of this action is not to be taken lightly,” Ron Marotta of Yosemite Logistics said. “The impact to the economy will be severe.”

East coast port workers went on strike at midnight on Tuesday, Oct. 1^st after negotiations broke down over technological issues. The International Longshoreman’s Association wants assurances from port owners that they will never implement labor saving technologies like automation or AI. The average longshoreman currently makes $150,000 a year and provides the third slowest port service in the world. Only ports in Somalia and the Sudan are slower, according to experts attending the conference.

Most Americans might not notice there’s anything wrong with the shipping industry in the short term. Major retailers are already all stocked up for the holidays.

“Christmas is already here,” said Rick Dimaio, Ace Hardware’s chief supply chain officer. Valentines Day will be another story.

Wisconsin’s manufacturers will probably feel the pain a lot sooner than that. Most of the parts and components used in American manufacturing are imported. They will soon be facing shortages and higher costs. How long they can stave that off depends on how much material they have stockpiled in their “Just-In-Case” inventories.

Wisconsin’s agricultural industry won’t be directly affected by the strike, at least not right away. Most of its exports head north to Canada, south to Mexico, or west to China and Korea. However, it won’t be long before Wisconsin farmers are confronted with the indirect effects of the strike – higher transportation costs.

Shippers began shifting cargo to the west coast a couple of weeks ago. Once it’s unloaded, it will have to be transported east by truck, air, or rail. Also, exporters on the east coast will be forced to start shipping their goods to west coast ports. That increased demand will increase the cost of shipping. That increased cost of shipping will subsequently mean higher consumer prices too.

One of the most immediate and tragic effects of the strike will be to the Hurricane Helene emergency relief efforts in 11 southern states. Critical supplies will now have to be rerouted to west coast ports.

The impacts of this union strike not only will hurt Americans. Caribbean nations are dependent on the US for food imports. European nations get their medical supplies from the US.

Logistics experts had hoped the Biden-Harris administration would have enacted the Taft-Hartley Act to prevent the shutdown. Now they hope the administration will use it to end the strike. Reagan used that law to bust the air traffic controller strike in 1981.

The Biden-Harris Administration has been mute on the impending crisis. President Biden said he will not intervene. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said she’s staying out of it. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has been M.I.A. since Friday, when he met with port owners (though apparently not the union).

The last time port workers went on strike was in 1977, and it lasted for five weeks.