A wildcat strike closed all metro shipping ports Tuesday after workers refused to cross picket lines set up to protest a labor dispute elsewhere, officials said.
Dock workers at Port of New York and New Jersey facilities joined the work stoppage in sympathy with fellow union members from Camden, N.J., the union said.
“There are some 200 members of 1291 in Philadelphia who are going to lose their jobs and they came up to New York and New Jersey to set up informational pickets, which the local members have honored and not crossed,” said James McNamara, spokesman for the International Longshoreman’s Association.
The dispute stems from efforts by fruit-packing giant Del Monte to move its operation from the Camden port to one in Gloucester, N.J., where non-union labor is used.
McNamara said the work stoppage was not officially sanctioned by the union and amounted to a “wildcat” action. He said he did not know how long it would continue but heard the Philly workers planned to set up additional pickets at ports used by Del Monte in Florida and Texas.