By Zolan Kanno-Youngs
President Joe Biden urged the alliance representing port employers to present a fair offer to striking longshoremen earlier this week as the White House scrambled to contain the economic and political fallout of the work stoppage at U.S. ports.
“Collective bargaining is the best way for workers to get the pay and benefits they deserve,” Biden said in a statement. “Executive compensation has grown in line with those profits, and profits have been returned to shareholders at record rates. It’s only fair that workers, who put themselves at risk during the pandemic to keep ports open, see a meaningful increase in their wages as well.”
The labor dispute between the roughly 45,000 workers and the port operators has forced Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris into a complicated position. A prolonged strike could send chills across the U.S. economy, creating shortages, layoffs and even higher prices for consumers just weeks before the presidential election.
The strike began after a monthslong impasse between the union and the port operators. The workers had pushed for wage increases that exceeded what the group representing the operators had offered. The union is also fighting automation at its ports.
Biden has said he would not use a federal labor law to force the workers back to work, despite pressure from Republicans to contain the potential economic pain.
Invoking the almost 80-year-old law, known as the Taft-Hartley Act, could alienate unions and diminish crucial support among labor groups in battleground states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan just before the presidential election.
“He believes in collective bargaining, and that’s how a deal is going to be made,” said William Brucher, a professor focusing on labor studies at Rutgers University. If Biden were to use the law to intervene, “there will be really negative political consequences not only for him and his legacy but also Vice President Harris and her presidential campaign.”
During a previous labor dispute that would have frozen rail traffic in 2022, Biden called on Congress to intervene to avert a potential strike. But that was under the authority of a federal law that specifically governs labor relations in the railroad industry, meaning the White House is left with few options for this labor dispute, Brucher said.
That decision in 2022 prompted some union members to criticize Biden, who has called himself the “most pro-union president in American history.” Biden has since held a number of events, however, to spotlight policies that benefit unions. The Harris campaign has also focused on using Biden in a careful and targeted way to bolster support among unions in critical swing states.
Without congressional intervention, Biden has had to use his bully pulpit to push both sides to the bargaining table to work out a deal. Even before the International Longshoremen’s Association union walked off the job, Biden had dispatched administration officials to try to broker a deal.
Biden’s chief of staff, Jeff Zients, and his National Economic Council adviser, Lael Brainard, gathered Monday with members of the United States Maritime Alliance, which represents port operators. Zients and Brainard “urged them to resolve this in a way that accounts for the success of these companies in recent years and the invaluable contributions” of the dockworkers, according to the White House.
Biden’s top aides, including Pete Buttigieg, the transportation secretary, and Julie Su, the acting labor secretary, have been in contact with both the workers and port operators. Senior administration officials made calls Tuesday to leaders on both sides of the talks.
But those efforts still cannot force the two sides to work out an agreement.
“They have mediators, and they offer their services to bring the two sides together and hammer out an agreement and help with the trading of offers,” Brucher said. “They can’t force an agreement; it’s more forcing the two sides to bargain.”
The Biden administration and outside analysts have found that a strike lasting just a few days would have minimal impact.
But a stoppage lasting weeks could have an effect on the availability of goods and the underlying economy. A strike could cost the economy $4.5 billion to $7.5 billion, or a 0.1% hit to U.S. annualized gross domestic product, every week as truckers and other workers dependent on the ports are furloughed and manufacturers experience delivery delays, according to Oxford Economics analysts.
While those losses would be reversed once the strike was over, it would take a month to clear the backlog for each week of the strike, the analysts estimated.
The potential sign of inflation has already caused alarm among some lawmakers. Republicans on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee sent a letter to Biden last month warning of “dire impacts to our supply chains, our economy and the American consumer.”
“If a strike should occur, we urge the administration to utilize every authority at its disposal to ensure the continuing flow of goods and avoid undue harm to American consumers and the nation’s economy,” the members wrote in the letter.
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