Some good news for the country. The ports are open at least until January, and that means it won’t be an election issue. Via Reuters:
Oct 4 (Reuters) – U.S. East Coast and Gulf Coast ports began reopening late on Thursday after dockworkers and port operators reached a wage deal to settle the industry’s biggest work stoppage in nearly half a century, but clearing the cargo backlog will take time.
The strike ended sooner than investors had expected, weakening shipping stocks across Asia on Friday as freight rates were no longer expected to surge.
[…] Pricing platform Xeneta said it was likely to take two to three weeks for the normal flow of goods to be reestablished. […] The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) workers union and United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) port operators announced the deal late on Thursday. Sources said they had agreed a wage hike of around 62% over six years, raising average wages to about $63 an hour from $39 an hour.
