A port strike is now in place. Negotiations between the International Longshoremen Association Union, which represents about 85,000 port workers, and the United States Maritime Alliance employer group representing about 40 ocean carriers and terminal operators, failed to come to an agreement before the contract expired, and while President Biden says he will not intervene, Mike Steenhoek with the Soy Transportation Coalition says he could stop it through the Taft Hartley Act.
“What that would do is it would obligate the two parties to an 80 day cooling off period where work would resume at the ports and they would provide more time for negotiating.”
Steenhoek says the strike will not impact bulk exports of soybeans and grains.
“Those facilities operate under a different arrangement. They have their either their own workforce, or they operate with a different labor union. So bulk commodities would not be impacted by this. What this would impact is containerized shipping of soybeans and other agricultural products.”
That is about a five to 6% impact on exports in soybeans. The American Farm Bureau says the strike disruption to overall ag trade is expected to be about $1.4 billion for every week it is not resolved. Steenhoek says the biggest hit would be on meat exports.
“Those occur in refrigerated containers. They don’t have an infinite shelf life. They are perishable. Of course, you can’t hurt the domestic livestock industry without having a harm force to impose the soybean farmers and other grain farmers.”