October 2, 2024- According a report from The Washington Post, the longshoremen strike will threaten critical supply chains and delay the shipment of goods like fresh produce, automobiles, and medical equipment.
There are dozens of sites being affected by the dockworkers strike over wage increases, ranging from Maine to Texas, that handle the shipment of car parts, machinery, pharmaceuticals, food, medical equipment, and more. Medical equipment alone accounted for an average of $173M in imports and $98M in exports from August 2023 to July 2024.
Continue Reading from The Washington Post.
If the strike continues, smaller businesses will feel the pain of not being able to compete with the buying power of larger companies, especially as the holiday season creeps up. “It creates a staggering amount of additional cost and transportation for small and medium-size and large companies,” Paul Brashier, global supply chain vice president at ITS Logistics said to The Washington Post. “That trickles all the way down to the consumer, and that’s where inflationary pressure comes from.”
While it’s still the early days of the strike, another Washington Post report says that consumers likely won’t feel the major impacts until a couple of weeks into the supply being offline. Any prolonged gap would be felt across the economy, hitting farmers, manufacturers, retailers, and eventually consumers.
“A one-day shutdown can take on average three to five days to recover from, and if the strike is prolonged, that compounds every day,” Jonathan Gold, vice president of supply chain and customs policy at the National Retail Federation said to The Washington Post. “If we go two weeks, you’re looking at several months, and that could take us beyond the holidays.”