The union representing 45,000 striking U.S. dockworkers at East and Gulf coast ports has reached a deal to suspend a three-day strike until January 15th to provide time to negotiate a new contract.  The union, the International Longshoremen’s Association, is to resume working immediately.  The union and the U.S. Maritime Alliance, which represents ports and shipping companies, also reached a tentative agreement on wage increases, but no details were given, according to a joint statement from the ports and the union late last week.

 

While the return of the workers is good news for the farmers and producers that depend on those ports to get their goods to the international community, the worse is not behind farm county.  First, experts said it will take a week to clear the backlogged ingoing and outgoing cargo.  Also, as the American Farm Bureau Federation Economist Danny Munch points out, this strike took place days after the 2018 Farm Bill expired.

 

"It’s another pressure and another disruption that our farmers are going to have to deal with, without a good safety net in place," Munch said.  "There’s already carriers that have announced surcharges on containers to start in mid-October. Now, to export ag products, they could be facing a three-thousand dollar per container surcharge, and that’s not something foreign markets are going to want to purchase.” 

  

Munch added the suspended port strike, the August Canadian rail strike and Hurricane Helene are just the latest examples of why U.S. farmers need the protection of a modernized Farm Bill.

 

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