How a dockworker strike could impact everyday costs, delivery times [Video]

WASHINGTON (DC News Now) — Forty-five thousand dockworkers are expected to walk off the job at midnight on Tuesday, effectively shutting down 36 ports on the East and Gulf Coasts.

For months, a contract deadline loomed for an agreement between the International Longshoremen’s Association and the US Maritime Alliance, leading to uncertainty about the cost of consumer goods.

The National Retail Federation says ships will drop anchor–imports and exports will stop–stating, “the downstream impacts on businesses, workers, consumers and the economy at large are too large to see a coastwide port strike.”

In an interview with DC News Now in the hours before the contract deadline, Dr. Martin Dresner, professor of supply chain management at the University of Maryland, said, “I think we’re going to be OK in the immediate term. If this lasts a long while, in terms of weeks and months, certainly these companies will run out of stock and consumers may experience shortages.”

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