The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) cancelled contract negotiations last week. Then the union said its threatened strike, which would start October 1st, is “more likely.”

That puts us here at Universal Cargo into full strike watch mode, much like we were a little over a decade ago. In 2012 and 2013, we regularly updated shippers with an ILA strike watch when the union threatened to strike, planned a strike, but postponed it, and eventually reached a new contract without striking. Even without the strike actually happening, there was some disruption from carriers diverting vessels to protect themselves and shipments from the threatened strike.

Hopefully, 2024 will only see the threat of a strike and not an actual one. An ILA strike would shut down U.S. East and Gulf Coast ports, disrupt supply chains around the world, and cost the U.S. economy billions of dollars (likely per day). Unfortunately, an actual ILA strike is looking more likely as we draw nearer to the September 30th expiration of the union’s master contract rather than less likely.

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