Vowing to stop machines from taking their jobs, 45,000 U.S. longshoremen are threatening to go on a strike that would shut down ports on the East and Gulf coasts and could damage the American economy just as President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House. If the standoff sounds familiar, it’s because the same dockworkers — members of the International Longshoremen’s Association — staged a three-day walkout last fall. In October, they suspended the strike until Jan. 15 after reaching a tentative agreement with ports and shipping companies for a 62% pay raise over six years. But union members must approve a final contract before receiving the higher wages. That’s where things get complicated. Negotiations resume Tuesday between the ILA and the U.S. Maritime Alliance, which represents ports and shippers. The sticking point is a familiar one at America’s ports: machines replacing human labor, specifically semi-automated cranes operated by software or employees working remotely to guide containers onto trucks or trains. Conventional cranes have a human at the controls. The union and its president, Harold Daggett, are dead set against allowing additional automation at East and Gulf coast ports. They argue that the machines aren’t any more efficient than human labor. “This isn’t about meeting operational needs,’’ Daggett’s son Dennis Daggett, the union’s executive vice president, wrote last month. “It’s about replacing workers under the guise of progress while maximizing corporate profits at the expense of good-paying, family-sustaining U.S. jobs.’’ Port operators and shipping companies argue that U.S. ports are falling behind more automated ports such as those in Rotterdam, Dubai and Singapore. Facing the Jan. 15 strike deadline, the two sides will have barely a week to reach an agreement. “They’re not giving themselves a whole lot of time,’’ said Jonathan Gold, a vice president at the National Retail Federation who handles issues involving supply chains and trade. Trump has already weighed in for the union. After meeting Harold Daggett at the Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, the president-elect posted on social media that additional automation of ports would hurt workers: “The amount of money saved is nowhere near the distress, hurt and harm it causes for American workers, in this case, our Longshoremen.’’ Trump also asserted that he knows “just about everything there is to know about’’ automation. The stakes are high for the U.S. economy. Ports on the East and Gulf coasts handle more than half the nation’s traffic in shipping containers, the steel boxes at the center of world trade, which carry everything from smartphones to fresh fruit to automobiles. “A strike that lasts less than a week won’t have a material impact on the broader economy,’’ said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics. “Inventories are generally ample, which will forestall shortages … However, a strike that lasts much longer than a week will cause increasing disruptions and shortages that will result in mounting economic costs, rising from an estimated $500 million a day to over $2 billion a day if the strike lasts more than a month.’’ The retail federation’s Gold says it take three to five days for supply chains to recover from a one-day disruption. “If you go anywhere longer than five days, then you’re into serious difficulties,’’ he said. “Then you’re into weeks of serious recovery.’’ An 11-day shutdown at […]