As union dockworkers began striking against employers at East and Gulf Coast ports early Tuesday morning, reports of panic-buying at supermarkets almost immediately started spreading across social media.
Video clips posted by social media users on X and Facebook showed people rushing to buy water, toilet paper, paper towels and other items at supermarkets and retailers across the U.S.
“Are people already panic buying because of the Port Strike? Here are the grocery shelves in the water section at my local Kroger this morning. I realize that we are probably also low on water due to the Helene aftermath in East Tennessee, but still not great to see this already,” photographer and author Denise Van Patten posted in a social media video clip on X.
Micheal Coker posted on X, “Well the panic buying is in full swing in my little town in South carolina. Sam’s at 8:30 a.m., no water. Same at Walmart and grocery stores. Next will be toilet paper.”
The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) is the union behind the strike against its United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) employers for a new master contract. The two groups negotiated back and forth up until late Monday night, when the union’s deadline for a strike expired at midnight.
Major issues on the bargaining table are wages, benefits and rules on port automation. The ILA said USMX’s latest reported wage increase proposal of 50% over six years of a new contract was rejected by its members.
The affected ports, represented by USMX, include three of the U.S.’s five busiest ports: the Port of New York and New Jersey, the Port of Savannah, Georgia, and Port Houston.
Related: Dockworkers go on strike at ports across US East, Gulf coasts
Matthew Shay, president and CEO of the National Retail Federation, called on the Biden administration Tuesday to step in and help end the strike.
“A disruption of this scale during this pivotal moment in our nation’s economic recovery will have devastating consequences for American workers, their families and local communities,” Shay said in a news release. “After more than two years of runaway inflationary pressures and in the midst of recovery from Hurricane Helene, this strike will result in further hardship for American families.”
Shay urged the administration to prioritize the economy “and intervene immediately to prevent further hardship and deeper economic consequences.”
A prolonged strike could cause major disruption to the domestic supply chain, according to American Farm Bureau Federation Economist Daniel Munch.
“For international destinations, waterborne exports are vital to us farmers,” Munch said in a podcast on Thursday. “They make up over 75% of total U.S. agricultural export volume. The potential strike that we’re looking at would mainly disrupt containerized agricultural exports, which account for 30% of U.S. waterborne agriculture exports by volume. The remaining 70%, often grains and oil seeds, are shipped via bulk carriers, which are usually managed by independent workforces and will not be affected by the strike.”
He said U.S. farmers could be particularly vulnerable to a strike that lasts a week or more.
“The strike could have disastrous impacts on U.S. agriculture, depending on how long it lasts,” Munch said. “The disruption to overall agricultural trade is expected to be about $1.4 billion each week that a strike is in place. When we think about what commodities are at risk, nearly 80% of waterborne exports of poultry leave East Coast ports, 56% of raw cotton, 36% of red meat, 30% of dairy products and even 6% of soybeans all go through those ports, through containerized exports. Not having an outlet to move those goods will create supply surpluses domestically and reduce prices for farmers.”
The top retailers that could be affected by the work stoppage at the ports are Walmart, Ikea, Samsung and Home Depot, according to data from ImportGenius and Arbor Data Science.
Last year, Walmart led all U.S. retailers with the most imports to East and Gulf Coast ports,
Officials for Walmart said they prepare for any potential disruptions to their supply chain.
“We prepare for unforeseen disruptions in our supply chain and maintain additional sources of supply to ensure we have key products available for our customers when and how they want them,” Jeffrey Essary, a global communications spokesperson for Walmart, told FreightWaves.
Jean
The writer used a high level explanation I guess please low your standard Mr. writer you know English major is a bad motor scooter the nurses cannot understand your language you are talking about RULES on port automation, wages and benefits they don’t understand what about when their turn which is underway with robotic nurses? In simple english
The dock workers are on strike because the port have robots to take their jobs.
Soon you nurses will be next lookup robot nurses you’ll be obsolete soon.
I’m just a truck driver
Penny pilgrim
I am horrified by the timing of the strike but it is also a dual issue. First, management has bargained with the longshoremen in bad faith. They ultimately have a plan to cut jobs via automation and had said to their workers that they would not. They lied and then denied that they were doing this. The amount of money the workers demand is way out of line. Corporate liars and greed have created the crisis however, it is short sighted to blame the workers who are not being negotiated with. Shame on the Biden regime to continue to drag down this country. They could have forced both sides to the table to negotiate a fair deal for both sides
nightdipper
Biden/Haris should lock down the country for two week to stabilize this dire situation. Do it for the kids.
Oliver Lindsay
I have never commented on an article on this platform or any other but I cannot let this article pass as a news piece. You start by showing a picture of 2020 Covid era shortages, which has absolutely nothing to do with what we are seeing or may be seeing today. You then fail to mention that 90%-93% of toilet paper consumed in the US is produced in the US or Mexico, additionally an even larger percentage of paper towel is produced and consumed in the US than imported. This piece of “news” is fear mongering at its worst and a desperate plea for attention at its best. I have come to Freight Waves for years for industry updates and articles, but this lack of facts and insertion of conjecture make me rethink the value of this platform. Do better.
Ken
This is ridiculouse. Im a nurse that saves lives with a college education and we dont demand that much $. I say fire them all and start over. Even hire immigrants if need be
Jennifer
So, the dock workers realize that due to Harrisflation, they need a 50% raise. Anyone who pays for housing, food, fuel, and utilities knows that’s about right. But the Biden-Harris administration is only giving our citizens a Social Security cost of living increase of 2.5% for next year because as part of campaign propaganda, the federal government is faking all the data and claiming Biden has the economy in terrific shape. If people with jobs think the contents of their wallets are shrinking fast, they should try being an elderly person who paid into SS all their life and now that they are trying to get by on SS every month, Biden-Harris has constantly drained the value out of the American dollar to the point SS that seniors are in real trouble.
Diane Land
Fire all 45,000 dock workers.
We have plenty of unemployed that would love to make the kind of money the dock workers are making now. They think they have us all in a bind and it is bad timing after hurricane Helene.
Give them 24 hours to be back at work or let them go
Randall Wilmoth
There has got to be other demands that aren’t being released to the public. For them to reject a 50% wage increase the span of 6 years sounds great, but apparently not. So they will instead; hold our nation hostage by crippling farmers and taking a huge risk of crashing the stock market. If they keep this up ; the Administration will intervene and the union will have wished they took the proposal