Trump blames port workers strike on ‘massive inflation’ caused by ‘Harris-Biden regime’
EXCLUSIVE: Former President Donald Trump told Fox News Digital that the strike involving tens of thousands of port workers from Maine to Texas on Tuesday is a result of “the massive inflation that was created by the Harris-Biden regime.”Trump spoke exclusively with Fox News Digital on Tuesday morning, after the International Longshoreman’s Association (ILA) began its first strike since 1977 after its six-year contract with the U.S. Maritime Alliance (USMX), which represents port employers, expired Monday night.
“The strike was caused by the massive inflation that was created by the Harris-Biden regime,” Trump told Fox News Digital. “Everybody understands the dockworkers because they were decimated by this inflation, just like everybody else in our country and beyond.”
Negotiations between the ILA and USMX have been deadlocked thus far over the union’s demands related to wage hikes and compensation, as well as protection from automation at ports.
The stoppage could cost the U.S. economy $5bn a day after an “impasse” stalled negotiations over wages and automation.
Tens of thousands of port workers along the East Coast and Gulf of Mexico went on strike in the early hours of Tuesday morning, the first industrial action by the U.S. longshoremen’s union in almost half a century.
The stoppage could cost the U.S. economy $5bn a day after an “impasse” stalled negotiations over wages and automation.
Port facilities from Maine to Texas were surrounded by walking picket lines in a stoppage that stands to reignite inflation and cause shortages of goods if it goes on more than a few weeks.
AP reports the contract between the ports and about 45,000 members of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) expired at midnight, and even though progress was reported in talks on Monday, the workers went on strike. The strike affecting 36 ports is the first by the union since 1977. Workers began picketing at the Port of Philadelphia shortly after midnight, walking in a circle at a rail crossing outside the port and chanting “No work without a fair contract.” The union had message boards on the side of a truck reading: “Automation Hurts Families: ILA Stands For Job Protection.”