Treasure Valley seeing empty shelves following port worker strike on east coast

Shoppers are seeing empty shelves following a port worker strike on the East Coast bringing pandemic flashbacks. Idaho has its own seaport in Lewiston that does not anticipate being affected.

• Stores have been posting signs at entrances with what is already unavailable.
• With the threat of the strike and supply chain issues fresh in shoppers' minds from recent years, some consumers have started bulk buying.
• If a strike were deemed a danger to U.S. economic health, President Joe Biden could, under the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act, seek a court order for an 80-day cooling-off period.

( Below is the transcript from the broadcast story)

In flashbacks to to the pandemic in 2020, this week's port strikes prompting panic buying. Local shoppers telling me they couldn't buy toilet paper on Wednesday — the shelves: empty.

Dozens of ports from Maine to Texas saw employees go on strike Tuesday. With the threat of the strike and supply chain issues fresh in shoppers' minds from recent years, some consumers have started bulk buying. Stores have been posting signs at entrances with what is already unavailable.

"I wouldn't say 'panic buying' but as we've come to learn with COVID and stuff, I think when people heard the docks were shutting down they got over and bought it up pretty quick," shopper Jerry told me after checking out.

The current International Longshoreman's Union strike is the first since 1977. The union and the United States Maritime Alliance are at a stalemate over wages and automated machinery at port locations. That machinery has the capability of handling half of the country's cargo.

Idaho has its own seaport in Lewiston, despite being over 300 miles away from the Pacific Ocean, the most inland port in the west.

I reached out to see if they're preparing for, or expecting impacts, from the East Coast strikes.

They told me, "The Port of Lewiston is not expecting a direct impact. We do not have union employees working at the Port, so no labor stoppage or slowdown. The only indirect impacts we are monitoring would be at the export ports in Portland and Vancouver, in case some sort of sympathy striking occurs there to affect the commodity unloading of our goods. We think the chances of that are low."

If a strike were deemed a danger to U.S. economic health, President Joe Biden could, under the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act, seek a court order for an 80-day cooling-off period. This would suspend the strike.