The
Port of Los Angeles is going to 24/7 operations as a step toward
helping ease the shipping snarl there and at the Port of Long
Beach, a senior administration official told reporters ahead of
the meeting.
In addition, the three largest carriers of goods - Wal-Mart,
FedEx and UPS - plan to move toward round-the-clock operations
to help speed the shipment of goods across the country, the
official said.
Samsung, Home Depot and Target are also increasing their work in
off-peak hours to accelerate the movement of goods, the official
said.
"By taking these steps, they're saying to the rest of the supply
chain, you need to move too," the official said. "Let's step it
up."
White House officials, scrambling to relieve global supply
bottlenecks choking U.S. ports, highways and railways, are
warning that Americans may face higher prices and some empty
shelves this Christmas season. They are urging patience.
The supply crisis is driven in part by the global COVID-19
pandemic. It not only threatens to dampen U.S. spending at a
critical time, it also poses a political risk for Biden.
The latest Reuters/Ipsos poll shows the economy continues to be
the most important issue for Democrats and Republicans alike.
Biden will meet at 1:45 p.m. (1745 GMT) at the White House with
executives from the two ports as well as from the International
Longshore and Warehouse Union, the Teamsters, the AFL-CIO,
Wal-Mart, FedEx, UPS, Target, the National Retail Federation,
the American Trucking Association, the Pacific Maritime
Association, and more.
He will speak on these efforts at 2:20 p.m. (1820 GMT).
The White House has been trying to tackle inflation-inducing
supply bottlenecks of everything from meat to semiconductors,
and formed a task force in June that meets weekly and named a
"bottleneck" czar, John Porcari, to push private-sector
companies to find ways to get goods flowing.
Thousands of shipping containers are on cargo ships offshore
waiting to be offloaded at the ports of Los Angeles and Long
Beach. Similar backlogs exist at ports in New York and Savannah,
Georgia. A shortage of warehouse workers and truck drivers to
pick up goods is partly to blame.
(Reporting By Steve Holland; Editing by Tim Ahmann and Richard
Pullin)
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