As tens of thousands of dockworkers along the East and Gulf coasts prepared to walk off the job after midnight, port operators announced an 11th-hour offer to boost wages and avert a strike by the International Longshoremen’s Association.

The ILA did not respond immediately to the Monday evening update by the U.S. Maritime Alliance, which represents shipping lines and marine terminal operators.

“In the last 24 hours, the USMX and ILA have traded counter offers related to wages,” the Maritime Alliance said. “The USMX increased our offer and has also requested an extension of the current Master Contract, now that both sides have moved off their previous positions. We are hopeful that this could allow us to fully resume collective bargaining around the other outstanding issues — in an effort to reach an agreement.”

The current contract expired at midnight Monday.

A strike would shut down the Port of Baltimore, where the union represents around 2,400 workers, for the second time this year. The port was largely closed for about two months after the container ship Dali struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge, collapsing the span into the Patapsco River, blocking the channel and killing six roadway workers.

It’s also expected to disrupt the economy, both locally and around the country, as the delivery of goods from overseas is delayed. Some economists expect costs to rise, rekindling inflation just as it seemed to be coming under control.

In Baltimore, port officials and the union have agreed upon several locations near marine terminals where members could “peacefully gather” in the event of a strike, a port spokesman said.

Those include areas in front of the Dundalk and Seagirt terminals on Broening Highway and in front of the North and South Locust Point terminals on McComas Street, said Richard Scher, a spokesman for the Maryland Port Administration.

On Monday morning, the union reported no further progress toward settling a labor contract with the Maritime Alliance.

The employers’ group has refused “ILA’s demands for a fair and decent contract and seems intent on causing a strike at all ports from Maine to Texas beginning in almost 12 hours,” the union said Monday morning in a Facebook post.

The Maritime Alliance had said little since Thursday when it filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging that the union has refused to negotiate. The NLRB is investigating, a spokeswoman said Monday.

The union called the filing a publicity stunt and has said the two sides have communicated in recent weeks.

The Maritime Alliance said late Monday that it offered to increase wages by nearly 50 percent, triple employer contributions to employee retirement plans, strengthen health care options and keep current language tied to automation, which has been a bargaining sticking point.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore has been closely monitoring the situation, a spokesman said Monday.

The governor “encourages the United States Maritime Alliance and the International Longshoremen’s Association to continue to talk and progress toward an agreement that properly compensates the men and women of the ILA while maintaining cost-effective and efficient cargo flows,” said Carter Elliott, Moore’s spokesman.

White House officials met Friday with port operators and urged them to negotiate with the longshoremen’s union. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, acting Labor Secretary Julie Su and Lael Brainard, director of the White House National Economic Council, told members of the Maritime Alliance that they should be at the table with the union and negotiating before the contract expires, according to a White House official who insisted on anonymity.

In a statement last week, the Maryland Port Administration also implored both sides to negotiate to reach an agreement.

In Baltimore and elsewhere, ILA dockworkers handle containerized cargo and vehicle shipments. Baltimore is the nation’s largest port for shipments of vehicles in and out of the United States. The union said it would continue to handle military cargo and passenger ships even as it strikes.

In its Monday update, the union took aim at foreign-owned ocean carriers represented by the Maritime Alliance.

“They want to make their billion-dollar profits at United States ports, and off the backs of American ILA longshore workers, and take those earnings out of this country and into the pockets of foreign conglomerates,” the union said in its statement. “Meanwhile, ILA dedicated longshore workers continue to be crippled by inflation due to USMX’s unfair wage packages.”

The union said shipping costs have increased over the past few weeks from $6,000 per container to an “unheard of” $30,000 for a full container.

“The shippers are gouging their customers [resulting] in increased costs to American consumers,” the statement said.

Port-related economic losses on the East and Gulf coasts could add up to as much as $5 billion a day, said Margaret Kidd, an instructional associate professor of supply chain and logistics technology at the University of Houston. A strike would impact more than half the U.S. in terms of imports, she said.

For every day the ILA is on strike, it would take an average of five days to clear backlogs, which means a two-week strike could have implications into next year.

An extended strike would disrupt fresh fruit and vegetable shipments from Central and South America and automotive and other parts for manufacturing, among other items, Kidd said. Ultimately, she said, prices would rise for manufacturers, shippers and consumers.

“Anytime costs go up for manufacturers and producers, they look to pass those costs on to consumers,” said Jeremy Schwartz, professor of economics at Loyola University Maryland’s Sellinger School of Business. “The greater cost of getting raw materials and products into any business, and certainly local businesses as well, could potentially mean higher prices for the consumer.”

A port shutdown in Baltimore could cause losses similar to those caused by the Key Bridge collapse and cost the state’s economy an estimated $15 million a day, said Daraius Irani, chief economist of Towson University’s Regional Economic Studies Institute.

“It would be a hit, and depending on how long it goes would determine how long it takes to recover,” Irani said. “The other challenge is, unlike when the bridge collapsed and the port was closed, there were alternatives,” for rerouting ships along the Eastern seaboard.

Because some goods have been shipped early in anticipation of a strike, “we may not feel it immediately as there’s probably many goods in the pipeline already,” he said. “If it’s a short-term strike, we’ll get over it. If it’s two, three weeks, that could be really hurtful for the economy. If it’s beyond that, that could have some significant impact.”

That longer-term harm would trickle down to Baltimore-area businesses that support the port, everything from restaurants to logistics firms, in much the same way as during the bridge-related shutdown, Schwartz said.

“There’s thousands of additional indirect workers that unfortunately are going to be affected without the same cushion as the striking workers have” in terms of a union-supported strike fund, he said.

The ILA has not walked out on such a large scale on the East Coast since 1977, when a work stoppage lasted 45 days.

“This strike is historic,” said Will Brucher, a port labor expert at the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations, in an email.

Brucher said it is “reasonable” for ILA members to fight for wages that are comparable to those of longshoremen on the West Coast and for job security in the face of automation.

“The industry is enormously profitable,” he said.

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