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Vilsack says the administration continues to monitor potential port strike

Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack says the Biden administration is keeping a close eye on the potential East Coast port strike. “For now, the message is quite clear,” he says.  “Stay at the table, continue to bargain, and get it worked out.”  He says the administration believes that the best resolution to any labor dispute is when the parties sit down at the bargaining table and essentially hammer out the difference they may have.

During a call Saturday morning Vilsack told reporters the USDA is cognizant of the impact a strike could have on trade. “The export aspect of it is relatively small in comparison to some of the other industries that are impacted by the ports, about $ 90 million a day,” he says. “It’s really much more significant on the import side in terms of items coming in from other countries, probably twice that or more in imports.”

He says products coming in are primarily value-added food products from Europe and other regions.

The Secretary says a shutdown to ports along the East and Gulf Coast is significantly different than ports on the West Coast where U.S. dockworkers ratified a six-year contract in August of 2023. “The West Coast is where a significant amount of our export activity is to Asia,” he says.  “So, the West Coast ports are very significant in that respect.  And that’s not to diminish the importance of the East Coast ports, but two suggest there’s a significant difference between the two in terms of being able to evaluate the impact of a stoppage or what strategies need to be put in place if there were to be a stoppage.

Tens of thousands of workers have threatened to strike if a new six-year deal isn’t reached before the current contract expires at midnight on September 30th. This would be the first East Coast dock strike since 1977.