What was dropped a few hours ago on the American election campaign is a real bomb. The dockworkers’ union, the International Longshoremen’s Association, has started a huge strike to demand wage increases and greater guarantees against automated work. This is the first lockout that this organization has implemented since 1977: a lockout that will involve approximately 45,000 workers in 36 ports on the east coast. According to JP Morgan, this strike could cost up to five billion dollars a day. The issue is burning and risks serious damage Kamala Harris who, let’s remember, is the current vice president of the United States. Joe Biden it will predictably try to move to damage it as little as possible. The point is that the occupant of the White House finds himself in a fundamentally insoluble dilemma.
In the first scenario, Biden could suspend the strike, invoking the Taft-Hartley Act. However, if she acted in this way, she would be considered anti-union and, as such, her deputy could be labeled. There Harrisfor its part, cannot afford to irritate the blue-collar workers, given that the powerful truck drivers’ union already turned its back on it a few days ago, announcing that it does not want to endorse any of the presidential candidates. We remember that, since 2000, the hauliers had systematically given their support to the Dem candidates and that, a few hours ago, they expressed solidarity with their port colleagues.
In the second scenario, Biden he might decide to do nothing and let the strike take place. In this case, however, the president would find himself facing significant problems in relation to supply chains: a situation that could cause prices to skyrocket just before the Christmas period. Even in this case, the political risks would be high, given that the Harris would find itself having to defend its administration’s choices in the face of the highly probable irritation of consumers.
It is clear that a dilemma, in some respects, also looms Donald Trump: the Republican candidate will in fact have to be careful not to alienate the growing support of blue-collar workers and, at the same time, that business world which, however, does not look with great sympathy on this strike. Net of the risks, however, the tycoon at least has on his side the fact that he is not currently in government: a circumstance which makes the Harris. A Harris which, as already mentioned, both in political and image terms is encountering increasing difficulties in its relations with the working class. It must be said that the vice president has never shone with respect to this important electoral segment: however it seems that her deputy, Tim Walzisn’t helping her enough with blue collar workers. About a month before the vote, the Dem candidate will have to face perhaps the most difficult obstacle of her entire electoral campaign.
