MONTPELIER, Vt. (WCAX) – It may soon be hard to find some of your favorite foods or your next car as thousands of port workers are now on strike.
Vermont Sen. Peter Welch says the strike could have ripple effects on the availability of products and could be a blow to the economy.
“You have food and consumer products coming into a port and getting stuck there because there is a strike and they won’t be unloaded or then be loaded onto transport into the communities,” said Welch, D-Vermont.
In our backyard, workers at the Port of Montreal are also on strike. That one is only expected to last for three days, but SUNY Plattsburgh Professor of Economics and Finance Colin Read says it could have more impacts on our region than the national strike.
He says that’s because roughly 25% of shipments from the port of Montreal go to the U.S.
“A lot of activities happen in these warehouses, including a lot of pick and pack and then distributing these containers to areas across the country. So, a lot of that supply chain originates in Montreal and then they use Plattsburgh as the outlet for shipping across the United States,” Read said.
He says if prolonged, the strikes could result in layoffs at warehouses.