Republican Congress members call on Biden to halt dockworkers strike

WASHINGTON — Republican lawmakers are pushing for President Joe Biden to reverse his stance against intervening in a dockworkers strike expected to stymie supply chains and raise prices, by invoking his executive powers.

Port workers represented by union International Longshoremen’s Association joined picket lines early Tuesday as contract negotiations with the U.S. Maritime Alliance, which represents the ports, stalled over wages and the impact of automation. The strike affects ports across the East and Gulf coasts.

House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Sam Graves, R-Missouri, and Maritime Subcommittee Chairman Daniel Webster, R-Florida, on Tuesday wrote to Biden urging him to use authority in the Taft-Hartley Act to intervene and end the strike.

President George W. Bush in 2002 invoked the act, which allows the president to seek an 80-day “cooling off” period in labor disputes, after 29 Pacific Coast ports initiated a lockout. Graves and Webster wrote in the letter that, as a result, port operations resumed and the parties agreed to a new contract.

They noted that the impacted ports represent more than 68 percent of containerized exports and 56 percent of containerized imports, including a majority of the country’s pharmaceutical imports and vehicle exports.

“Therefore, the economic impacts of failing to intervene and bring the parties to the negotiating table will be wide ranging, leaving the American consumer paying higher prices as we approach the holidays,” they said.

Graves was among a cohort of 69 Republican House lawmakers who wrote to Biden last month, pressing the White House to avert a strike.

Biden on Tuesday reaffirmed his stance that he won’t intervene and called on the Maritime Alliance to offer a “fair” contract.

“Collective bargaining is the best way for workers to get the pay and benefits they deserve,” the president said in a statement, noting that workers are negotiating with “a group of foreign-owned carriers.”

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Monday said senior officials at the Transportation and Labor departments have been in touch with the parties and have been urging them to negotiate quickly and in good faith.

“We have never invoked the Taft-Hartley to break a strike and are not considering doing so now,” she said. “This is a president that has been called a pro-union president by … the labor unions because of how much he believes that the union built the middle class.”

ILA President Harold Daggett said in a statement that ports “brought on this strike when they decided to hold firm to foreign owned Ocean Carriers earning billion-dollar profits at United States ports, but not compensate the American ILA longshore workers who perform the labor that brings them their wealth.”

“We are prepared to fight as long as necessary, to stay out on strike for whatever period of time it takes, to get the wages and protections against automation our ILA members deserve,” Daggett said.

Trade associations are starting to weigh in as well.

“This is not just about pay or a shipping delays — it’s about our global competitiveness,” Eric Hoplin, CEO of the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors, said in a statement. “The administration must act decisively — end this strike, reopen the ports, and ensure the U.S. remains a leader in global trade.”

J.P. Morgan analysts estimated the strike will cost the U.S. economy between $3.8 billion and $4.5 billion a day. The stoppage comes just a few weeks ahead of a tight presidential election, in which the economy and inflation have become major issues.

Biden, however, has acted to avert a strike before. Congress passed a resolution in 2022 that finalized a White House-mediated labor agreement between rail unions and railroads to avert a widespread work stoppage, which Biden then signed. Almost a year later, he joined striking members of the United Auto Workers on the picket line.