Negotiations between longshore workers and the shipping industry are mired in impasse with the workers' union contract expired on September 30, all but guaranteeing a strike Tuesday that will halt activity at the busiest U.S. ports and disrupt an already fragile economy.
Leaders of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA), a union covering 47,000 workers along the East and Gulf Coasts, have not called an all-ports strike since 1977. But the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX), the employers' negotiating group, has this time refused to meet the ILA's demands for higher compensation and a ban on automated cranes, gates and container-moving trucks that are traditionally handled by the workers.
