The countdown is on. As Daily Splash, our free newsletter, published today, there remained just 91 hours left to resolve a worker impasse in America that threatens to send supply chains around the world into chaos. If by the end of Monday, no pay deal has been struck between employers and employees, 45,000 American dockworkers across the east and Gulf coasts will then down tools in an industrial action that will have ripple effects across every shipping sector. Contract negotiations have broken down between the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and port operators on the US east and Gulf coasts. The current agreement, which covers workers at facilities including six of the 10 busiest US ports, expires next Monday. You feel the impact down the line months after The United States Maritime Alliance (USMX), which represents shipping companies and terminal operators, on Thursday filed an unfair labour practice complaint against the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA). The complaint lodged with the National Labor Relations Board seeks to require “the union to resume bargaining — so that we can negotiate a deal,” USMX said. White House officials on Thursday called for dockworkers and port operators to return to the bargaining table. “Senior officials from the White House, Labor Department and Department of Transportation are in touch with the parties and delivering the message to them directly on being at the table and negotiating in good faith fairly and quickly,” a White House spokesperson told local media, adding that there was no talk of president Joe Biden using the Taft-Hartley Act to avert the strike. The US Chamber of Commerce has urged Biden to step in to avert a looming port strike. “We call upon the administration to immediately work with both parties to resume contract negotiations and ensure there is no disruption to port operations and cargo fluidity,” the chamber wrote in a letter to Biden on behalf of a raft of industry associations from meat to dairy, fresh produce and frozen foods. A JPMorgan analysis projected that a strike could cost the US economy $5bn daily. Adding to the impending potential chaos, dockworkers at eastern Canada’s largest port have also threatened to down tools. Unionised dockworkers at the port of Montreal have voted to strike as their own pay negotiations drag on. Global bank HSBC estimates a potential port strike across US east and Gulf coast ports would impact over half of US container imports and nearly a sixth of global container trade. Alphaliner estimates that vessels with a total capacity of 4.6m teu, or 15% of the current fleet, are deployed on the routes serving east and Gulf coast ports and these could be out of rotation for a while. HSBC has calculated that a week-long port strike will tie up 0.5m teu of overall container throughput on ships anchored during the strike, equating to 1.7% of fleet capacity. Peter Sand, chief analyst at Xeneta, a box freight rate platform, commented: “There are ships on the ocean right now carrying billions of dollars of cargo heading to ports on the US east and Gulf Coast. These ships cannot turn back and they cannot realistically re-route to the US west coast. Some may divert to ports in Canada or even Mexico east coast, but the vast majority will simply wait outside affected ports until the workers return. The consequences will be “severe”, Sand said, not only through congestion at US ports, but these ships will be delayed returning to As