Longshoremen and dockworkers, belonging to the ILU, are demanding "absolute airtight" protection against the threat of automation at U.S. ports.

Striking dockworkers reached a tentative agreement with port operators on Thursday for a 62 percent wage increase and have extended their contract through Jan. 15 to bargain over remaining issues.

We’re prepared to stay on strike for as long as it takes to secure the wages and protections our members deserve.”

At midnight Tuesday, members of the International Longshoremen’s Association, which represents 45,000 dockworkers nationwide, began to strike as their contract expired. Although just a couple hours down the road,

A port worker strike that’s seen 50,000 longshoremen walk off the job is sending some shoppers in the Mid-South into panic mode. Many stores are now putting in orders for extra supplies from their warehouses because of shoppers over-buying,

About a hundred striking longshoremen marched by a terminal in the port of Baltimore. Some carried signs that read: “machines don’t feed families.”