NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — With half of the country's port workers currently on strike, we know many of you are worried about what you'll be able to buy at the store.
The International Longshoreman's Association is on strike, asking for a 77% raise over the next several years along with protections from their jobs being automated.
"Those greedy companies are making billions of dollars and they don’t want to share," said Harold Daggett, President of the ILA on Monday. "We’re going to win it or this port will never open up again."
Already, shoppers in Clarksville and Franklin have bought up toilet paper and paper towels from the Sam's Club in those communities. We've heard about similar scenarios in other cities as well.
Andy Borchers is a Supply Chain Management professor at Lipscomb University. He says there's absolutely no need to panic buy anything, at least at this point.
"If it lasts a couple of days, it would be resolved fairly quickly," said Borchers. "The longer it drags out, the more likely you are to see issues."
Borchers says the first issues to arise may deal with fresh fruits like bananas that will spoil at closed ports. He also anticipates issues for Middle Tennessee's car manufacturers — Nissan in Smyrna and GM in Spring Hill.
"Spring Hill and Smyrna both produce vehicles that are exported out of some of these ports. Also, in some cases, they’re bringing vehicles in depending on where they’re coming from," he said.
Borchers says major farm equipment that is typically shipped through the Port of Baltimore could also see major slow downs.
Borchers says yes, if there's a long term strike, it would cause massive supply chain issues. But there are two elements alleviating some of the issues. Number one, the West coast ports are still open and operating. They're under a different union. Number two, a lot of retailers knew this was potentially coming.
"Christmas items, in many cases, might have been taken care of already because retailers knew it was coming," said Borchers. "In fact, they had record level of shipments in July and August, knowing this was coming and/or the retailers in some cases rerouted to the West Coast to avoid the problem."
Until the ripples die down, Borchers hopes customers won't overreact. He thinks panic buying items will only make this situation a lot worse.
"You don’t need to run out and buy bananas," he said.
Can anything be done?
President Joe Biden could use the Taft-Hartley Act to order all of the port workers back on the job. But that isn't likely, given the President's support for labor unions. Plus, while the act would require them to temporarily come back to work for a period of time, it can't require them to work at their normal pace.
Of course, the union and shipping organizations reaching a deal would also end the strike.
Do you have more information about this story? You can email me at Chris.Davis@newschannel5.com.
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-Lelan Statom
