Port strikes in 2024 and 2025 closed major US East Coast, Gulf, and Canadian gateway ports for days at a time and forced freight forwarders to reroute thousands of containers on short notice. The October 2024 International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) walkout shut 36 US ports for three days. Weeks later Canadian dock workers at Montreal and the Port of Quebec struck, after a 13 day BC port strike in 2023 had already crippled Vancouver and Prince Rupert. A new ILA master contract now runs through 30 September 2030, but several Canadian local agreements are still in arbitration and the labor risk remains live for any forwarder routing through North America in 2026 and 2027.
A port strike is a work stoppage by dockworkers, terminal operators, or related union labor at one or more marine terminals. During a strike, vessels cannot be loaded or discharged, gates close to trucks, and rail dray operations stop. Strikes are usually called by a union after a collective bargaining agreement expires and negotiations with the port employer fail to produce a new contract.
The economic damage from a port strike scales with how concentrated US and Canadian container volume is. The US East Coast and Gulf ports handle roughly 43 percent of US containerized imports. Vancouver and Prince Rupert handle about 32 percent of Canadian container traffic on the Pacific. Montreal handles around 40 percent of Canadian East Coast container volume. When the union covering those ports walks out, there is no easy substitute close by, and the cargo either waits or reroutes through ports thousands of miles away.
Forwarders feel three layers of disruption. The first is the obvious vessel queue: ships sit at anchor while berths are idle. The second is the cascade once work resumes: backlogs of containers, dwell times that triple, equipment imbalance as empties pile up in the wrong terminals, and rail and trucking capacity that buckles under the catch up rush. The third is the financial layer: demurrage and detention charges, peak season surcharges, and force majeure disputes over who pays for delays the carrier blames on the port.
On 1 October 2024 the International Longshoremen's Association walked off the job at 36 US East Coast and Gulf ports after master contract negotiations with the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) broke down. It was the first coastwide ILA strike since 1977. Affected ports included New York and New Jersey, Norfolk, Charleston, Savannah, Jacksonville, Houston, New Orleans, and Mobile, among others.
The strike lasted three days. By 3 October the ILA and USMX announced a tentative agreement on wages (a roughly 62 percent increase over six years), and the union agreed to extend the master contract through 15 January 2025 to give both sides time to negotiate the harder issues, primarily automation.
Even three days of stoppage produced two to three weeks of measurable backlog. JOC and Sea Intelligence reported that container dwell times at Savannah and Norfolk roughly doubled in the two weeks after the strike, and chassis pools were short in multiple terminals through late October. Spot ocean rates on Asia to US East Coast lanes spiked roughly 15 to 20 percent in the week leading up to the strike as shippers tried to front load cargo.
Wage was the easy part. Automation was the breaking issue. The ILA opposed any new semi automated equipment, particularly the rail mounted gantry cranes that some terminal operators wanted to deploy. USMX argued that automation was needed to keep US East Coast ports competitive with West Coast and northern European hubs.
On 8 January 2025, with a second strike looming on 15 January, the two sides reached a tentative deal on the full master contract. The agreement was ratified in February 2025 and runs through 30 September 2030. The contract froze new semi automated and fully automated equipment deployment outside of a narrow list of locations where it was already in use. Wages step up annually. Container royalty and benefits provisions were updated.
For freight planning purposes, the ILA labor risk on the US East Coast and Gulf is now stable through September 2030. That is the longest visibility window forwarders have had on that coast in over a decade.
The Canadian situation is more complicated because the country has two separate dock worker unions on two coasts, each with its own contracts and disputes.
On the Pacific, ILWU Canada represents roughly 7,400 workers at Vancouver, Prince Rupert, and other BC ports. On 1 July 2023, ILWU Canada workers struck after talks with the BC Maritime Employers Association (BCMEA) broke down. The strike lasted 13 days and idled Canada's two largest container ports. Vancouver alone handles about 3.5 million TEU per year, roughly equivalent to the Port of Long Beach.
The strike ended on 13 July 2023 with a tentative deal mediated by the federal government, but ILWU Canada members rejected the initial offer. A revised four year deal was finally ratified later that summer. The Conference Board of Canada estimated total economic impact at roughly CAD 10 billion in disrupted trade.
The 2025 contract dispute, when the renewed agreement was up for negotiation, ended differently. The federal government invoked Section 107 of the Canada Labour Code and ordered the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) to impose binding arbitration. ILWU Canada lost the right to strike, BCMEA lost the right to lock out, and an arbitrator now sets the next contract terms. Operations on BC ports continued without interruption.
On Canada's East Coast, the union landscape is different again. CUPE Local 375 represents about 1,200 dock workers at the Port of Montreal. CUPE Local 1657 represents dockers at the Port of Quebec. Each has its own contract with the Maritime Employers Association (MEA).
In October and November 2024, both groups took action. The Port of Quebec workers were locked out by the MEA after rotating strikes. Montreal dockers staged partial strikes covering specific terminals, then a full strike. By 10 November 2024 the federal labour minister directed the CIRB to order binding arbitration and to require workers to return to operations. Both ports came back online by mid November, with arbitration to set the terms of the new contract.
The disruption was sharper than the ILA case in some ways. Montreal is the primary Canadian gateway for Europe to North America container traffic. With Montreal partially or fully out for several weeks in late October and early November, cargo had to divert to Halifax, Saint John, or, for non urgent freight, US East Coast ports like New York and Newark. Inland routing into Ontario and Quebec was complicated by limited rail capacity at the alternative ports.
| Date | Country | Union | Ports affected | Duration and outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 2023 | Canada | ILWU Canada | Vancouver, Prince Rupert, other BC ports | 13 days. Tentative deal, second offer ratified after initial rejection. CAD 10 billion estimated impact. |
| Oct 2024 | US | ILA | 36 East Coast and Gulf ports including NY/NJ, Savannah, Houston | 3 days. Tentative wage deal, contract extended to 15 Jan 2025. |
| Oct to Nov 2024 | Canada | CUPE Local 375 (Montreal), Local 1657 (Quebec) | Port of Montreal, Port of Quebec | Multiple weeks of partial and full stoppages and lockouts. CIRB ordered binding arbitration, return to work 10 Nov. |
| Jan 2025 | US | ILA | Same 36 ports | No strike. Master contract reached 8 Jan, runs through 30 Sep 2030. |
| 2025 | Canada | ILWU Canada | BC ports | No strike. Section 107 invoked, binding arbitration ordered. |
Strike days are a small part of the freight impact. Backlogs, equipment cycles, and inland capacity are usually the bigger pain. After the October 2024 ILA strike, forwarders running US East Coast import lanes saw four recurring patterns:
Port strikes affect both directions of trade. Inbound cargo waits at anchor or diverts to alternative discharge ports. Outbound cargo faces the same terminal closure but with a tighter deadline: exports are usually driven by production schedules and letters of credit that do not flex. The 2024 strikes pushed forwarders to use four alternative routings in parallel, depending on origin, destination, urgency, and customer:
What separated the forwarders who rerouted cleanly from those who scrambled was visibility. Teams who could pull every booking, every carrier, every operating vessel, and every milestone into one dashboard moved fast. Teams who tracked the same data in spreadsheets and emails lost three to five days to the data scramble alone. Shipment Tracking and Operations Software for Forwarders that surfaces affected containers by discharge port in one filter is the operational difference between a one week and a three week recovery.
Strike weeks produce a particular shape of accessorial cost. Per diem and detention clocks stop on strike days under most carrier tariffs, but they restart immediately when operations resume, often before the consignee can reasonably retrieve the container. That gap is where most pass through charges accumulate.
Under the FMC's 2024 OSRA detention and demurrage rule, charges levied during periods when the consignee cannot reasonably move the cargo (truck appointments unavailable, terminal closed, port disruption ongoing) can be disputed and refunded. Most forwarders do not file these disputes because they do not have an audit trail showing which days the consignee was actually blocked. Tracking gate availability and appointment status per container per day, in your Freight Billing and Accounting Software for Forwarders, is the evidence base that makes those disputes winnable.
On the contract side, the October 2024 strike forced forwarders and shippers to revisit force majeure language. The 2025 service contract cycle saw widespread updates that named specific labor disruption scenarios, set notification windows for invoking force majeure, and addressed who carries the cost of rerouting. Forwarders signing new shipper contracts in 2026 should expect to see, and to negotiate, much more specific labor disruption clauses than the boilerplate of the past.
The US side is settled through September 2030. The Canadian side is not. Three watch points for 2026 and 2027:
Four operational moves that proved their value in 2024 and stay relevant for the rest of the decade:
Port strikes turn every booking into a rerouting decision. GoFreight pulls operating vessel, alternative discharge port, demurrage and detention status, and customer SLA into one screen so your team reroutes containers in hours, not days.
Request a GoFreight DemoThe 2024 ILA port strike was a three day work stoppage that began on 1 October 2024 when the International Longshoremen's Association walked off the job at 36 US East Coast and Gulf ports after master contract negotiations with the United States Maritime Alliance broke down. It was the first coastwide ILA strike since 1977. A tentative wage agreement on 3 October ended the strike and extended the contract through 15 January 2025.
No. The ILA and the United States Maritime Alliance ratified a new master contract in early 2025 that runs through 30 September 2030. ILA covered US East Coast and Gulf ports are not at risk of a contract expiry strike in 2026. The next negotiation cycle begins in 2030.
The 2023 BC port strike was called by ILWU Canada after collective bargaining with the BC Maritime Employers Association failed to produce a new contract. Key issues included wages, automation, and contracting out work. The strike lasted 13 days at Vancouver, Prince Rupert, and other BC ports, with an estimated CAD 10 billion in disrupted trade before a federally mediated deal was eventually ratified.
In October and November 2024, CUPE Local 375 at the Port of Montreal and CUPE Local 1657 at the Port of Quebec took action over wages, scheduling, and job security. Montreal dockers staged partial then full strikes. Quebec dockers were locked out by the Maritime Employers Association. On 10 November 2024 the federal labour minister directed the Canada Industrial Relations Board to order binding arbitration and return to work.
The 2024 ILA strike affected 36 US ports across the East Coast and Gulf, including New York and New Jersey, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Norfolk, Wilmington NC, Charleston, Savannah, Jacksonville, Miami, Tampa, Mobile, New Orleans, and Houston. US West Coast ports operated by the ILWU were not affected because they are covered by a separate contract.
Forwarders used four main alternatives. Asia origin cargo was rebooked through US West Coast ports like Los Angeles, Long Beach, Oakland, and Seattle. Canadian East Coast bound cargo was diverted to Halifax and Saint John. Some volume was moved via intermodal rail through Southern US gateways. A smaller share of time critical cargo shifted from ocean to air. Visibility into operating vessel, ETA, and terminal status by container was the deciding factor in how fast each forwarder recovered.
The International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) represents dock workers at US East Coast and Gulf ports. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) represents dock workers at US West Coast ports. ILWU Canada is a separate Canadian sister union representing BC port workers. The three groups have different contracts, different employers, and different negotiation cycles. A strike at one does not automatically affect the others.
Yes. Under the FMC's 2024 OSRA detention and demurrage rule, charges levied during periods when the consignee cannot reasonably move the cargo can be disputed and potentially refunded. The dispute requires evidence that the cargo was blocked, typically a record of unavailable truck appointments, closed gates, or active port disruption. Forwarders without daily container level audit trails usually cannot file successful disputes.
Binding arbitration is a process where an independent arbitrator imposes the terms of a new collective agreement when the union and employer cannot reach a negotiated deal. In Canadian port disputes, the federal labour minister can direct the Canada Industrial Relations Board to order binding arbitration under Section 107 of the Canada Labour Code. The union loses the right to strike, the employer loses the right to lock out, and the arbitrator's award becomes the new contract.
Build pre approved alternative discharge ports per origin and customer, maintain real time container level visibility on every booking, capture daily evidence of gate and appointment availability for future demurrage and detention disputes, and update customer contracts with specific labor disruption clauses instead of boilerplate force majeure language. Forwarders who do these four things absorb strikes in days, not weeks.