NCC this week joined 55 other national and state agriculture and trade associations in a letter asking that the Biden administration intervene to prevent a possible strike on October 1 by workers at East and Gulf coast ports if a new agreement with shipping carriers is not reached.
“Our members represent a broad collection of the agricultural and food supply chains that would be negatively impacted if the International Longshoremen’s Association and the United States Maritime Alliance are unable to reach an agreement before the labor agreement expires on September 30th,” the letter said.
“If port operations are stopped, the impact on the ag supply chain will quickly reverberate throughout agriculture and not only slow or shutdown operations, but also potentially lower farmgate prices. To prevent a disruption to port operations along the East and Gulf Coasts, we request for your administration to act before a lockout or strike occurs to prevent damage to U.S. agriculture and the economy,” the letter concluded.
The letter noted that approximately 40 percent of U.S. containerized agricultural exports move through East and Gulf Coast ports.
The full letter can be found here.
This follows a letter NCC signed last week alongside 199 other national and state agriculture and trade associations that detailed the significant impacts a strike would have on agriculture supply chains and requested that the administration intervene in the situation to kickstart the talks.
ILA members voted three weeks ago to approve a strike starting October 1 if a new labor agreement is not reached. ILA has not officially gone on strike since 1977.
As of now, the White House has not announced publicly that it has intervened in the talks, nor have negotiations begun between ILA and the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX), which represents the ocean carriers.
