BUFFALO, N.Y. — As of Tuesday, around 45,000 members of the International Longshoremen's Association are on strike at ports along the East and Gulf Coasts.
This union hasn't gone on strike since 1977, and workers are asking for better wages. They also oppose automation at 36 U.S. ports.
"Roughly half the products that come into and go out of the United States come through those ports," said Jack Ampuja.
Jack Ampuja is the President of Supply Chain Optimizers. He says since companies knew the strike was on the horizon, they were able to stock up.
"But you can't do a lot with perishable goods, for example, and typically, these strikes, they make allowances for perishable products, or needed medical supplies, military products, things like that. There's been no discussion of that up until this point," said Jack Ampuja.
So what does that actually mean for what you will be able to buy at the store?
"Typically, you're looking at five to seven days, and you're going to start feeling the pinch because if things don't get off-loaded, there would be meat for example, fresh fruits and vegetables, that would start to run out of supply first because you can't stockpile them," said Jack Ampuja. "Foods from Italy, France, Germany. A lot of things from South America. We bring a lot of fruits in. Things like raspberries, strawberries would be coming in, things like that, so the perishable things are the ones that are problematical. We have refrigerated containers on-board the ships so there's some protection, but still the product is degrading at that point."
Mark Frascatore is the Dean of the Holzchuh College of Business at Niagara University. He says short term, we won't see much of an impact, but long term we could see serious supply chain issues.
"People say, you know, there's a shortage of a particular item, so they begin grabbing it, and then you have a shortage of that particular item, so the psychology is definitely present and is a concern also, so it's important that we not overreact to this, you know, trust that we're going to work it out. The government may get involved with this to help to settle the sides here, but, you know, as I say in the long term, if it starts affecting things like energy prices and oil imports, that affects everything. So that affects all price, and delivery, and logistics, and everything, so in the long term it definitely will be a concern," said Mark Frascatore.
They said it could be a very long strike, and we just don't know at this point. The 1977 strike lasted for seven weeks.