Port closure strike over Harris economic message

The White House suddenly finds itself facing new economic and political peril, after tens of thousands of striking dockworkers paralyzed ports on the East and Gulf coasts.

For Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, the timing couldn’t be worse.

Top White House and campaign officials are bracing for days of economic disruption following the work stoppage that began Tuesday, freezing goods and slowing access to a range of consumer goods.

This is a strike which could ultimately lead to shortages or an increase in the prices of certain products such as bananas and automobile spare parts. And with a neck-and-neck election just weeks away that could hinge on Americans’ views on the economy and grocery store prices, the conflict now threatens to amplify lingering concerns about the country’s financial trajectory.

“The potential impact, as we head into an election, is pretty serious,” said Ray Zaccaro, a former AFL-CIO adviser. “This is a really valuable and sensitive time in the election cycle when it comes to determining citizens’ views on the economy and who has the best economic solutions.”

Biden and Harris gave public support to the dockworkers’ union, which has been negotiating for months with the shipping industry over a new contract that would guarantee wage increases and other working conditions.

And Biden, who prides himself on being unequivocally pro-union, has ruled out any personal intervention to end the strike. On Tuesday, he urged shipping companies to pay dockworkers “appropriately, based on their invaluable contributions.”

“Shipping carriers have made record profits since the pandemic,” Biden said in a statement. “It is only fair that workers who took risks during the pandemic to keep ports open also see their pay rise significantly. »

Yet privately, top White House officials remain cautious about the economic and political fallout from a prolonged strike and have focused their own efforts primarily on pushing the two sides to reach a deal — and a quick one.

“All the White House can do is beg, plead and cajole,” said a White House adviser, who requested anonymity to discuss private conversations. “They want a settlement and they want it to be short.”

Officials estimate that the United States may be able to withstand up to two weeks of strike action before consumers begin to see disruptions in some sectors of the economy. But every day that ports representing more than half of U.S. merchandise trade remain closed risks further straining the nation’s complex supply chains. There are also underlying concerns about the political cost of the strike, which could give former President Donald Trump another opportunity to hammer Democrats on the economy and blunt Harris’ slight momentum on the issue. In a statement released Tuesday, Trump called the strike a result of the inflation seen under the leadership of Biden and Harris.

Senior Biden officials, including Chief of Staff Jeff Zients and Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su, spoke several times with union and shipping industry representatives before the work stoppage, said declared their collaborators, discreetly urging them to speed up the successful talks. little progress in previous months.

These negotiations did not result in an agreement before the Monday evening deadline. Since then, Zients and Su, along with National Economic Council Director Lael Brainard and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, have remained in close contact with both sides to pressure them to continue talks.

At the White House, aides — granted anonymity to discuss private conversations — pointed to continued negotiations as an encouraging sign that a deal remained in sight, expressing confidence that the work being done by the administration since 2021 to strengthen supply chains would prevent major problems from arising. waiting for.

Biden, determined to remain aligned with the labor movement, made clear in conversations with his top aides that he would not intervene to end the strike by invoking the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, they said — even whether such a move would force workers to return. on the docks and push the conflict beyond the elections.

Meanwhile, Democrats and their labor allies have backed away from Trump’s initial efforts to politically capitalize on the strike, arguing that it would only highlight his own lack of support for unions in the past.

“When you have a candidate saying ‘if union workers strike, they should be fired,’ trying to talk to union workers, it’s a little hard to imagine that message not having an effect,” he said. Zaccaro said.

Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants union, laughed when asked if Trump could exploit the situation to win base support.

“We have benchmarks here that are on full display,” she said. “The position taken by Biden and Kamala Harris is fundamental to showing the rest of the working class that they support collective bargaining and labor. »

Yet there is no certainty that a breakthrough will be achieved or what role the White House can play in ensuring the two sides reach an agreement. Shipping companies and dockworkers remained far apart on wages before the strike and also disagreed on key elements, such as how much automation the industry can use in their shipyards.

The organization representing dockworkers — the International Longshore Association — also has few close ties to Biden and his White House and, as a result, the administration may not have much influence over the union. Asked Tuesday about Biden’s relationship with ILA leader Harold Daggett, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said there was “no relationship to talk to” and couldn’t tell if the two had spoken.

Top officials have rarely dealt directly with Daggett in recent years, the White House adviser said, with the ILA seen as much less interested in national politics than many other major unions — and therefore, much less responsive to political pressures.

“They don’t particularly care about what the White House does and doesn’t want here,” the adviser said. “What they care about is what their members want. »

With little assurance about how the strike will play out, Harris and her campaign have largely stayed away from the issue. Campaign spokesman Ian Sams declined to say during a Monday appearance on Fox News whether Harris supported the strike, choosing instead to echo Biden’s support for collective bargaining and continued efforts to achieve an agreement.

Democratic strategists also saw no reason for Harris to take a different position, emphasizing her broader support for workers’ rights.

“For unions, time strikes to make things uncomfortable. That’s always been their mantra,” said Michael Trujillo, a California-based Democratic strategist, adding that supporting the longshoremen was “good politics and good policy.”

Still, Democrats recognize that the timing is particularly uncomfortable for Harris, who was just beginning to show signs of narrowing a long-standing gap with Trump in polls on the economy. The improvement came after Harris worked methodically to separate herself from the inflationary concerns that had dampened Biden’s candidacy. Now, if the strike drags on and prices begin to rise in the days leading up to Election Day, some of that crucial progress risks being reversed.

“If prices start to rise right before the election, yes, that would certainly be a challenge,” said Mike Lux, a Democratic strategist.

But within the Democratic Party, officials and activists hope that they ultimately won’t have to face that challenge — and that in the meantime they can limit the economic and political fallout.

“Voters are not in a good mood toward big business, multinational corporations, and I think they will be more inclined to blame the shipping companies than the strikers,” Lux said. “If the strike goes on, people will feel the effects and if we say we are on the side of workers and that companies are ripping people off, I think that will resonate.”