Thousands of dockworkers have gone on strike all down the eastern seaboard of the U.S. over a contract dispute about pay increases and automation. The action puts nearly half of the country's ocean shipping on hold and could cost the economy billions of dollars per day.
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00:00No contract, no work!
00:02No contract, no work!
00:04Dockworkers on strike.
00:06At major ports across the east and gulf coasts of the United States,
00:10tens of thousands of workers have walked out.
00:13It's the first large dockers union strike in nearly 50 years.
00:17What do you want to do?
00:18Shut them down!
00:19What do you want to do?
00:20Shut them down!
00:21The action comes after port operators and a union that represents about 45,000 dockworkers
00:26failed to reach an agreement on a new contract by a Monday night deadline.
00:31The two sides disagree on pay increases and automation.
00:34We're striking because these companies are making a lot of money.
00:39We have not been given fair raises in the past.
00:44We work in hard conditions.
00:47We're out there in the rain, we're out there in the heat seven days a week.
00:54We're here on call.
00:56The International Longshoremen's Association, or ILA,
01:00initially demanded a 77% pay raise for its members,
01:04but has since lowered that to just over 61%.
01:07It also wants a complete ban on automation,
01:10which dockworkers fear will see their jobs replaced by robots.
01:14Who owns the docks?
01:16ILA!
01:17Who owns the docks?
01:18ILA!
01:19The port employers, represented by the U.S. Maritime Alliance,
01:23offered smaller raises and also didn't agree to an automation ban.
01:27Automation doesn't feed families.
01:29Automation doesn't pay taxes.
01:31These are the things our members make their livelihood off of,
01:33so we need to make sure we're protected in our jobs.
01:36The strike is affecting ports all down the Atlantic coast,
01:39from Maine in the north to Texas in the south,
01:42and has put around half of the nation's ocean shipping on hold.
01:46Analysts say the strike could cost the U.S. economy billions of dollars per day,
01:51and if it continues for more than a few weeks,
01:53it could become an economic crisis,
01:55and all with a U.S. presidential election just weeks away.
01:59So the longer the strike lasts, the two risks come out of it.
02:03One of them is political,
02:05because there will be an increasing impact on inflation,
02:09as well as on employment.
02:12The other part is that if we start running low of inventories of critical goods,
02:18especially related to medicine,
02:20then we have a national security issue.
02:26DOC workers say they aren't trying to force a national crisis.
02:30Nobody wants a prolonged strike.
02:32Nobody wants to have problems,
02:34but you have to fight for what you have to fight for.
02:37Recent wage offers exchanged by the two sides
02:39suggest they are moving closer to a deal.
02:42But until an agreement is reached, an economic crisis looms.
02:46A major unwanted headache for the Biden administration
02:49in the final weeks before the election.
02:51Klein Wong and Cadence Coranta for Taiwan Plus.