45,000 dockworkers could be going on strike

The Street

TheStreet’s Conway Gittens brings you the biggest news of the day, including what investors are watching and why 45,000 dockworkers might be walking off the job.

Transcript

00:00I'm Conway Gaines reporting from the New York Stock Exchange. Here's what we're watching on

00:03the street today. Investors are keeping their eyes on NVIDIA this Tuesday. The AI chip leader

00:08rolled out a suite of AI products at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, including its first

00:14desktop computer. Shares of NVIDIA are trading near all-time highs. In other news, consumers

00:21are facing another threat that could prevent inflation from further cooling. A tentative

00:27agreement to prevent dock workers from going on strike is about to expire on January 15th.

00:32If a permanent agreement isn't worked out by then, then a worker's strike could cripple some

00:38of the nation's busiest ports. At stake is the flow of goods at three dozen ports spread from

00:44Maine all the way down to Texas. These ports are responsible for receiving more than half of the

00:49foreign-made products that enter the U.S., not to mention our exports that are shipped overseas.

00:55A value of roughly two billion dollars a day, according to the National Association of

01:00Manufacturers. Ahead of a possible strike, retailers have already ordered container ships

01:04stocked with goods to keep store shelves full. But if a strike is prolonged, then the law of

01:10supply and demand will kick in, leading to higher prices at the cash register. The economy already

01:15got a taste of what that could feel like when the International Longshoremen Association went on a

01:20three-day strike in October. While workers went back to work after agreeing to a 10 percent pay

01:26hike in the first year and a 62 percent raise across six years, the two sides have yet to tackle

01:32the more complex issue of automation. Port operators say they need automation to increase

01:38productivity, but members of the union representing 50,000 dock workers fear robots will take their

01:44jobs. That'll do it for your daily briefing from the New York Stock Exchange. I'm Conway Giddens

01:49with the Street.

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