International Longshoremen’s Association says it will strike starting Tuesday

The International Longshoremen’s Association is preparing to strike this week along the East and Gulf coasts.

The union, which represents around 2,400 workers at the Port of Baltimore, said Sunday that work will stop starting Tuesday.

“The 85,000 members of the International Longshoremen’s Association, joined in solidarity by tens of thousands of dockworkers and maritime workers around the world, will hit the picket lines at 12:01 am on Tuesday,” the union said. “The United States Maritime Alliance refuses to address a half-century of wage subjugation.”

The U.S. Maritime Alliance filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board last week, alleging that the union has refused to negotiate. The union called the filing a publicity stunt and has said the two sides have communicated in recent weeks .

White House officials met Friday with port operators and urged them to negotiate with a longshoremen’s union. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, acting Labor Secretary Julie Su and Lael Brainard, director of the White House National Economic Council, told members of the United States Maritime Alliance that they should be at the table with the union and negotiating ahead of the contract expiring Monday, according to a White House official who insisted on anonymity.

In a statement last week, the Maryland Port Administration implored both sides to negotiate “an agreement that properly compensates the men and women of the ILA while maintaining cost effective and efficient cargo flows.” The current contract expires Monday.

Port-related economic losses on the East and Gulf coasts could add up to as much as $5 billion a day, said Margaret Kidd, an instructional associate professor of supply chain and logistics technology at the University of Houston. For every day the ILA is on strike, it would take an average of five days to clear backlogs, which means a two-week strike could have implications into next year.

The ILA has not walked out on such a large scale on the East Coast since 1977, when a work stoppage lasted 45 days