The Biden administration has put pressure on US port employers to secure a labour deal with some 45,000 workers, who walked off the job at seaports across the country. The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) launched a strike just after midnight on Tuesday, after negotiations with the US Maritime Alliance for a new six-year contract collapsed. The ongoing protest is the first in nearly 50 years. It has choked half the country’s ocean shipping across more than 30 ports from Maine to Texas. Sally Patterson reports from Washington DC.
