Across the East Coast and the Gulf Coast, dockworkers are striking for better pay, and the effects are being felt throughout the United States.
In particular, the strike could affect the importation of ingredients from around the world, hurting New York City’s restaurants in the process, Eater N.Y. reported on Tuesday. Things like fish, produce, chocolate, wine, and olive oil all arrive via the ports where longshoremen have walked off the job.
“It’s a big worry; a lot comes through on the East Coast,” Sal Lamboglia, the owner of Brooklyn’s Cafe Spaghetti and Swoony’s, told Eater. “For us, we are hoping that we don’t get impacted financially. With availability and prices on food already inflated, I am hoping that they can settle fast and figure it out and do what’s right so we can move forward.”
Some 50,000 members of the International Longshoremen’s Association stopped working at midnight on Tuesday to protest low wages and the threat to their jobs from automation, Eater noted. As such, deliveries into ports up and down the East Coast and the Gulf Coast are being disrupted. The American Farm Bureau Federation said that delays could occur for a whole host of items: cherries, chocolate, canned goods, wine, beer, whiskey, and scotch among them, according to Eater.
“Nearly 90 percent of imported cherries, 85 percent of canned foodstuffs, 82 percent of hot peppers, and 80 percent of chocolate that arrive via waterborne vessels are offloaded from containers at these ports,” the group says on its website. “The situation is similarly significant for beverages transported by vessel, with 80 percent of imported beer, wine, whiskey, and scotch, as well as 60 percent of rum, arriving in containers at East and Gulf Coast ports. Over 100 other food categories also depend on the smooth operation of these ports.”
Because of the importance of these ports, many restaurants and stores in New York are preparing for the worst. Todd Mitgang, the chef at Crave Fishbar and Crave Sushi Bar, told Eater that squid and shrimp may be rerouted to the West Coast and then driven to the East Coast, resulting in higher prices and a bigger carbon footprint. Wine importers, meanwhile, told the outlet that they’re particularly concerned about holiday shipments, which should have been starting to come in around now. Some of those wines are more expensive than usual, and it’s unclear whether they’ll arrive in time for the holiday season.
Others, though, aren’t yet sweating about the strike. Hakan Swahn, the owner of the Michelin two-starred Aquavit, told Eater that his restaurant is nimble enough to weather any shortages for now.
“Any prolonged disruption of deliveries would have some impact, but as a single-unit restaurant we are flexible enough to tweak our menus and substitute a particular shortage with locally available produce,” Swahn said.
Before the situation becomes truly dire, many in the New York restaurant community are hoping that the dockworkers are able to hammer out a settlement sooner rather than later.
