United States | October surprise

A ports strike shows the stranglehold one union has on trade 

East coast longshoremen are already among America’s best-paid manual workers

Dock workers on strike protest at the docks in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania October 2024.
Photograph: Matthew Ludak
|NEW YORK

Editor’s note (October 4th): This story was updated after a deal was reached to end the longshoremen’s strike.

Explore more

This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline “October surprise”

From the October 5th 2024 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

More from United States

A rubbish skip full of office chairs

Donald Trump goes to war with his employees

The president wants to shrink and remake the civil service

Kash Patel speaks to reporters at the Capitol in Washington.

Kash Patel is a crackpot

Is he also a menace?


The White House has been fluid on gender for a decade

Trump’s order “restoring biological truth” will not be the last word


A controversial idea to hand even more power to the president

Impoundment is about to come a step closer

Tom Homan, unleashed

America’s new border czar spent decades waiting for a president like Donald Trump