"People are going to sit up and realize how important longshoremen jobs are," union leader Harold Daggett said as the the dockworkers strike began at midnight Tuesday. Those words might hit home with disruption to the supply chain of a commodity many Americans start their day with. Reuters reports that hundreds of containers of coffee beans are among those piling up at East Coast and Gulf Coast ports. Coffee traders say stockpiles were already very low because importers have been keeping inventories low to avoid high storage costs.
"We have some 40 containers waiting to be moved," the head trader at a major coffee importer tells Reuters. He predicts that some regions "might have a supply squeeze" if the strike continues much longer. Major ports already have a backlog that could take weeks or months to clear. According to Census Bureau data, around 80% of containerized coffee imports to the US come through ports affected by the strike, along with 75% of imported bananas, the New York Times reports.
Jason Miller, a professor of supply chain management at Michigan State University, tells the Times that the strike won't cause major disruption or spikes in inflation if it lasts just a few days—supply chains are resilient enough to get through weather events that cause temporary port closures. But if the strike by 45,000 workers lasts longer than a week or two, Miller says, "that's when we're looking at the multibillion-dollar impacts per day." (More International Longshoremen's Association stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
