US National Retail Federation urges immediate action to avoid strike at US ports

WASHINGTON, D.C.–The US National Retail Federation is leading a diverse coalition of over 100 national and state associations in asking President Obama to take “immediate action  to ensure that a strike does not occur when the current contract extension [between the International Longshoremen’s Association and the United States Maritime Alliance, LTD.] expires on December 29, 2012.”

The coalition – which represents  auto makers, farmers, manufacturers and retailers – reiterated its call on the president “to take immediate action and use all of the options available to you, including the authority under the Taft-Hartley Act, to keep the parties at the negotiating table and avoid a coast wide port shutdown,” said an NRF release.

Failure to reach a contract agreement would result in a coast-wide shutdown at 14 containerized ports – from Maine to Texas – which would have “serious economy-wide impacts,” said the group.

The impacted ports would include Boston; New York and New Jersey; Delaware River [Philadelphia]; Baltimore; Hampton Roads, Va. [Norfolk]; Wilmington, N.C.; Charleston, S.C., Savannah, Ga.; Jacksonville, Fla.; Miami; Tampa, Fla.; Mobile, Ala.; New Orleans; and Houston.

Signatories to the letter included the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, American Apparel & Footwear Association, American Farm Bureau Federation, National Association of Manufacturers, National Retail Federation, Toy Industry Association and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.