The U.S. supply chain is about to face a greater challenge. Statistics show that by July next year, the labor contracts of nearly 15,000 dockers on the west coast of the United States will expire. At that time, if these workers choose not to renew their contracts, then The labor gap in the country's cargo transportation will further expand.
You should know that the current labor market in the United States is still in a downturn. These contract workers will take the initiative in the negotiation of contract renewal. They are likely to use this to ask employers to increase their wages or demand more benefits. This is often the case. It may take a long time, which may cause dissatisfaction among the workers and even set off a "strike wave."
Since there are 29 ports on the west coast of the United States, including the two main ports that undertake 40% of the country's cargo transportation-the Port of Long Beach and the Port of Los Angeles, statistics show that about 100 cargo ships are unloading outside these two major ports. , And there are still more than 60,000 containers piled up in the terminal. Therefore, once freight workers stop working, it will further aggravate the pressure of shortages in the U.S. commodity supply chain.
In fact, in order to unblock the terminals and alleviate the "stuck neck" problem of the commodity supply chain, the US government has done everything possible. First, the ports were required to adjust their operating hours and changed to operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. However, this trick was not very effective, and it was even dubbed by the US companies as a "gimmick" by the government.
Later, the United States offered its killer tricks. Starting from November this year, all goods exceeding the required detention time will be subject to additional charges for a period of 90 days. This additional cost is not a lot. According to calculations, if a container is not transported within the free detention period and stays overtime for 30 days, then the freight forwarder responsible for transporting this container will have to be fined US$46,500 (approximately RMB 297548).
Obviously, fines are still more irritating. When the fines policy reached the third day, the person in charge of the Port of Los Angeles stated that he had seen the speed of cargo transportation speed up and supply chain problems began to be alleviated. However, the expiration of workers' labor contracts may become a new "stumbling block", and the US supply chain problems may last for a longer period of time.
