Nearly 50,000 union longshoremen walked off the job at midnight Tuesday, shuttering at least 14 major ports across the East and Gulf Coasts that handle nearly half of all U.S. imports. Many economists estimate the strike could cost the U.S. economy billions of dollars per day and eventually cause shortages and price hikes for popular products, particularly in the food and automobile industries.
The strike currently stretches from Maine to Texas and includes the Port of New York and New Jersey, the nation’s third-largest port by cargo volume, where General Motors, logistics giant Glovis America, and LG Electronics are the top three importers, according to data from ImportGenius cited by CNBC.
