BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) -- U.S. ports along the East and Gulf coasts shut down Tuesday when a union representing around 45,000 dockworkers went on strike for the first time since 1977.
Demands from the union include a total ban on the automation of equipment and a significant raise. It’s unclear how long the strike will last, but if it goes on for months on end, people could start to see rising prices at the stores and a shortage of items.
While some people are worried about the possibility of prices getting higher in an already high cost-of-living environment, many said they won't be rushing the stores to stock up like what happening at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“COVID had a really big panic," Vestavia Hills resident Austin Linatoc said. "I don’t know if we’ll see a panic yet."
Linatoc said he’s not too nervous about the impacts from the port strike and won’t be rushing the stores to stock up on anything.
"There’s like a lot of bad things that have happened lately or like disasters, I guess you could say," Linatoc said. "Obviously, we had the really bad storms roll through, and now this. It’s like one thing after another. It I guess sucks for the average American that we could see something like that happening and impacting us.”
Beth Doyle owns The Collective, a hair salon in Pepper Place. She said because her business relies on products shipped in, it’s likely product and service costs will have to go up to accommodate.
"I know a lot of people are already strained to buy groceries and general supplies, so that is a concern," Doyle said. "I’ve tried to be better about not just using what I need. You know what I mean? I feel like we’ve become like Costco, big box everything, and just don’t buy something that you don’t need.”
An operations and supply chain management expert with UAB said people should not be in panic mode over the port strike right now. Assistant professor Mohammad Firouz said it will be after the holidays before the strike effects ripple out to the general consumer.
"COVID-19 taught a lot of these industries and companies to stock up goods sufficiently before -- ahead of time," Firouz said. "I am predicting that this effect would come out, if it had to affect people, in the next one to two months. Probably wouldn’t make it through the holiday season because the companies have already stocked up their orders.”
Firouz said the shorter the strike is, the more minor the impacts will be. But if the strike lasts longer than a few weeks, there will be more severe short- and long-term effects.