Jonathan Todd, Partner and Vice-Chair of Benesch's Transportation & Logistics Practice Group, was interviewed on Forbes TV by Ali Jackson Jolley, Assistant Managing Editor of Forbes, to discuss the ongoing dockworkers' strike, its origin, and potential resolutions.
The strike, which has since been resolved and spanned 36 ports from the East Coast through the Gulf Coast, impacted nearly 50% of all U.S. import and export traffic. The disruption created issues with unloading vessels at these ports and exporting domestically produced goods, posing significant challenges to the flow of products in and out of the United States.
"There are two main points of contention between the ILA and their contract holders," Todd explained. "The first is pay...they would like to see a 77% increase in wages over a set period of time. The more interesting piece is concern about automation at the ports. With current technology, tasks traditionally performed by physical labor can now be handled through automation, robotics, and remote workers, who can work more efficiently and safely from offsite. This raises an existential question about what we, as a country, value in terms of labor: do we want to protect these jobs, or are we prepared to embrace automation?"
Watch the full video here.