LISTEN: Maritime traffic has come to a halt at the Port of Savannah, the East Coast's second-busiest port, as a dockworkers' union and an alliance of port employers failed to reach a new contract Monday night. GPB's Benjamin Payne reports.

The container ship Marius sails toward the Talmadge Memorial Bridge en route to the Port of Savannah's Ocean Terminal.

File photo of a container ship sailing toward the Port of Savannah in February 2023.

Credit: Benjamin Payne / GPB News

Unionized workers at the Port of Savannah and the Port of Brunswick began going on strike Tuesday, as part of a larger walkout by about 45,000 dockworkers at ports across the East Coast and Gulf of Mexico that marked the first such strike since 1977.

The International Longshoremen's Association's initial demand from the U.S. Maritime Alliance (USMX), which represents port employers, was a 77% pay raise over the six-year life of a new contract, as well as a complete ban on automation.

USMX said Monday night that it had countered with a 50% raise over six years and to keep the same language on automation restrictions that were in the old contract, which was signed in 2018.

“These greedy companies have made billions in the past few years, especially during COVID,” ILA president Harold Daggett said in a video posted by the union in early September. “We never shut the ports down during COVID. ILA members lost their lives. … My men went to the docks every day, up and down the coast, to keep those ships going.”

USMX did not respond to GPB's request for comment on the strike and contract negotiations.

The Port of Savannah is the second-busiest port on the East Coast, behind only the Port of New York and New Jersey, and is the fourth-busiest port in the U.S. It has undergone rapid growth in recent years, owing in part to Savannah's advantageous location: the city's longitude is nearly as far west as Cleveland, Ohio, giving it better access to inland markets than most other East Coast ports.

The Port of Brunswick is the nation's second-busiest port for vehicle cargo, behind only the Port of Baltimore. It saw an influx of traffic after the collapse of Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge in March, which halted most traffic at that city's port for more than two months.

The Georgia Ports Authority, which owns and operates both the Port of Savannah and the Port of Brunswick, said in a statement Tuesday that it “looks forward to a smooth settlement and peaceful resolution to the USMX/ILA collective bargaining agreement so we can keep supply chains moving and competitive. We enjoy a good working relationship with our local Labor partners and are not involved in the contract negotiations. We are respecting the contract negotiation process with our ports closed today.”

As of noon Tuesday, 10 container ships and three bulk carriers were at anchor in the Atlantic Ocean near the Port of Savannah, according to VesselFinder.

An analysis by J.P. Morgan estimated that the strike could cost the U.S. economy up to $5 billion per day.

Tags: Port of Savannah  Port of Brunswick  Georgia Ports Authority  Savannah  Brunswick  Georgia  Strike