BALTIMORE — The Port of Baltimore could be on the brink of yet another shutdown.
This time over a labor strike.
The International Longshoreman's Association is threatening to have its 45,000 workers walk off the job at midnight Tuesday if an agreement can't be reached.
A strike would all but halt sea imports and exports, causing mass shipping delays on essentials like clothing, electronics, cars, canned goods, and produce.
This in turn could not only create inventory shortages, but increased pricing on various products such as cars, chocolate, alcohol and fruit.
If a strike were to happen, it would affect about 35 percent of all U.S. imports and exports costing approximately $5 billion per day.
The union is demanding higher hourly wages, and bans on automated cranes, gates and trucks.
Talk of a strike has the White House urging a fair compromise.
"Both sides have got to settle the strike. Support the bargaining efforts and I think they'll settle the strike," said President Joe Biden.
Here is how the strike could impact us locally.
More than 20,000 jobs are connected to the Port of Baltimore.
Some of them raised concerns of what it could mean for their own families with no paycheck coming in.
The Port of Baltimore is still recovering six months after the Key Bridge collapsed, which left operations shuttered for weeks resulting in millions of dollars in losses.
As for whether the holiday season would be affected, experts say 70 percent of goods retailers stock for the holidays were likely already shipped by this time of year.
