Question

In 2014, the supply chains were brought to a halt and the port of Long Beach was congested. what do you think would happen if the port goes on strike again? will the port have trouble syncronizing its labor and unions? what would happen with the volume if shipments moving from the west coast to east coast?

Answer 1

In any industry, strikes are quite common and there are many reasons causing these strikes. The most often encountered cause is the betterment of wages of workers. Same thing happened in 2014. the truck drivers, and clerks protested for improving their wages. This strike costed a lot to the port and it can be considered as a financial crisis. But the most significant consequence of this strike is the congestion. The material got piled upon but the transport between the two coasts, west and east, was halted. This created a lot of problems for the management. The strike was because of wages, but another fact caused this. The labor wanted to change their status to permanent employees from contractors.

If there is another strike, then it could be very difficult to synchronize labor and unions because of the fact that this is not the first time this problem is raised. As it has been protested since long ago, the tensions would be high. If the synchronization is lost, then in order to re-establish it again, it just means establishing the entire system again.

The volume that has to be transported to east coast from west coast, will get congested. So many shipments get delayed, which in turn causes a lot of losses for various businesses involved. The management might employ few interim workers for emergency shipments that concern National purposes. This congestion costs indirectly as well because many organizations might chose alternatives because these strikes are becoming frequent. This will be major blow to the management of the port. The sooner the solution is found to this problem, the better.