With growing pressure on farm margins (Jonathan Coppess, Squeezing the Farmer Part 1: Initiating Examination of a Persistent Challenge, Gardner Policy Series, September 26, 2024), and no relief currently in sight from a new Farm Bill being negotiated and signed by Congress (Farm Policy News, 2018 Farm Bill Extension Expires – What Does That Mean?, October 3, 2024), the first major dock strike since 1977 has some potential to exacerbate the current rather negative market outlook for US agriculture. The strike also comes at a time when agricultural trade forecasts by USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) indicate the sector will continue to run a deficit for 2024 (USDA/ERS, Outlook for U.S. Agricultural Trade, August 2024).
At midnight September 30, the contract between the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and the United States Marine Alliance (USMX) expired, negotiations between the parties having been stalled since June of this year, dockworkers going on strike on October 1 (Farm Policy News, Dockworkers Begin Strike at East and Gulf Coast Ports, October 1, 2024). The ILA represents an estimated 25,000 affected port workers, while the USMX represents ports on the East and Gulf Coasts and container carriers operating out of those ports. The ILA has been seeking wage increases exceeding the 32 percent won last year by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union which represents West Coast dockworkers. In terms of U.S. agricultural trade, of the $174 and $196 billion exported and imported in 2023, 38 and 43 percent respectively went through the affected ports (USDA, Global Agricultural Trade System, 2024).
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