Ron Leibman, chair of McCarter’s Transportation, Logistics & Supply Chain Management Practice, speaks with FreightWaves to discuss the economic fallout and potential effects on the upcoming election of a port strike. The International Longshoremen’s Association confirmed that it plans to strike if its contract demands are not met. Insiders say that major supply chain disruption just weeks before the November election could hurt Harris’s presidential bid, and that the Biden administration will likely be working behind the scenes to ensure a strike doesn’t happen.
What Harris and the Administration want to avoid is waiting until it’s too late to do something about the potential strike leading them to use provisions of the Taft-Hartley Act, a federal law that limits the power of labor unions in the United States. “I don’t see the Biden administration implementing Taft-Hartley,” Leibman said. He added, “I have to be very clear, this is not a political statement. I am not a political person. We are in an election where union votes count, and I don’t think anyone on any side would want to take any action that could be viewed as anti-union. Now, if everything gets shut down and they have no choice, I think the Biden Administration will help with mediations.”