West Coast dockworkers and cargo-handling companies are due this week to begin contract negotiations that carry high stakes for an American economy that has been wracked by supply-chain disruptions.
The labor talks cover about 22,400 workers at 29 ports, including the big Southern California facilities that make up the country’s busiest gateway for imported goods. Similar negotiations have been long and contentious in previous years, leading to extensive disruptions and delays in the flow of goods.
The risks have seldom been as high as they are this year.
The bargaining between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and cargo-handling companies is set to begin Tuesday, two years into a supply-chain crunch that was brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic and that has strained factory production, hobbled retail sales and helped push inflation to a 40-year…
