Baltimore steel business president details potential impact of port workers strike

BALTIMORE – The president of a Baltimore steel business is keeping a close eye on the port workers’ strike at the Port of Baltimore. Experts say that for each day the Port of Baltimore is shut down, there are about five to six days of backlog.

Nearly 25,000 longshoremen and dockworkers walked off the job on Tuesday at ports in the East and Gulf coasts, including nearly 2,500 at the Port of Baltimore. This is the first dockworker strike in the United States in nearly 50 years.

Vince Pappas, the president of Stone Steel Corporation, relies heavily on construction materials that are still stranded at the port.  

“That is only made overseas,” Pappas said about his supply. “This stuff comes in from Turkey. That stuff comes on containers, so that will be affected immediately.”

With business owners awaiting a resolution to the strike, construction materials and consumer goods remain anchored in the Chesapeake Bay.

“We’re really not sure how it’s going to affect everything else,” Pappas said. “Ships are going to get delayed coming in.”  

Supply chain congestion

Pappas says the strike comes at the worst possible time with its impacts on supply chain congestion intensifying the devastation left behind by Hurricane Helene in the South.

“We found that domestic suppliers will take advantage of shortages,” Pappas said. “Steel industry is heavily supplied by demand, and so what I’m going to be watching closely is the price of everything, because it can go up quickly.” 

Negotiations

The International Longshoremen’s Association, the union that represents the port workers, is asking for a $5 per hour wage increase every year for six years. This would amount to a total wage increase of $30 per hour by 2030. It also wants to ban the automation of port operations.

The U.S. Maritime Alliance (USMX), representing the shipping companies and ports, proposed a 50% wage increase and keeping the current contract language on automation.

Kelsey Kushner

Kelsey Kushner joined the WJZ team in January 2019.