More than 45,000 dockworkers are on strike at ports across the East and Gulf Coasts. Jonathan Gold, National Retail Federation vice president for supply chain and customs policy, joins Seana Smith and Brad Smith on Morning Brief to discuss what the Biden administration can do and how consumers could be affected by the historic port strike.

“At this point, the strike that is ongoing, we need the administration to get the parties back to the table, end the strike, get the parties negotiating, and get a deal that provides certainty for these ports moving forward,” Gold tells Yahoo Finance. Biden has the authority to seek an injunction that would effectively end the strike through the Taft-Hartley Act. However, he has said he will not be doing so and instead wants to come to an agreement through collective bargaining.

He explains, “The administration can take several actions. The Taft-Hartley Act certainly is one of those that implements a cooling-off period between the parties to continue to negotiate. We can look back to what happened in 2002 when we had the 11-day lockout at the West Coast ports, and most experts say that took close to six months to recover from. I think the economy, as we all know, is in a very different spot now. So a prolonged strike at the East Coast and Gulf Coast ports, you know, could take up to six months, depending on how long that strike goes for.”

“It's imperative we get those ports back up and running and operating because this is going to affect millions of other workers, millions of businesses, imports, and exports, who all rely on the flow of commerce through these ports.”

Gold says, “A lot of retailers took advanced mitigation steps to ensure that product will be on store shelves,” which could mitigate the impact on consumers. “However, even taking some of those steps, a prolonged strike is certainly going to have an impact on the supply chain, and the thing to consider here is the time it's going to take to recover from a strike. It takes three to five days to recover from a one-day shutdown. If that goes for a week or two weeks, that compounds, and you're looking at months for a potential recovery,” he explains.

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This post was written by Naomi Buchanan.