To start off the new year, port employers up and down the East Coast of America walked through mile high snow drifts to something just as fragile, union bargaining.  

To welcome in 2025, unions across the East Coast are reaching the end of a tentative deal that they struck with their employers over raises in wages that they were just fighting for less than a month ago. They were hoping for higher wages and more job security in the future, as the ever-changing economic situations create instability in the shipping industry. The workers went on strike in December of last year, with such a fiery response from union members that it created backlogs of both goods and foods that ship from overseas. It was a short strike, barley three days, but it caused a three-week hiccup in the delivery of those things, some of which evidently expired.  

For every day that this union goes on strike, it could take up to a week of dedicated hard work to bring it back to where they should be operating. If that strike had continued without the intervening for more weeks, maybe even months, individuals would see less exotic and common foods on store shelves. Even with freezers and temperate climate-controlled units in the backs of most chain stores having extra product.  

Thankfully, on Jan. 9 of this year, a week ahead of their deadline, the Longshoreman’s union and port bosses reached an agreement and avoided a strike that could have caused mass repercussions.  The deal includes most of what they were hoping for, including an increase in wages and job security. The union President Harold Daggett met with President Donald Trump in Palm Beach, Florida last month.  

As stated by apnews.com “According to a source familiar with the talks who requested anonymity because the details had not been made public, the agreement would give the ports more leeway to introduce modernizing technology. But in a concession to the union, they would have to hire new workers when they do, and full automation is off the table.” Also in that article, they say “A strike would have shut down ports along the East and Gulf coasts and would have begun damaging the economy if it lasted much more than a week, economists said. Automation has long been a contentious issue at U.S. ports. Longshoremen worry that machines — such as semi-automated cranes that don’t need their own individual operators — will supplant human workers. Even if the ports agree to protect existing jobs as they modernize, they could need fewer workers as they get more efficient, meaning the port workforce and the union could shrink over time.”