What will happen to the U.S. economy if shipping ports along New Jersey, New York and the East Coast shut down? It could happen if 45,000 longshoremen decide to go on strike in two weeks. It's a pressing labor dispute that could affect everyone.

The International Longshoremen Association says that Oct. 1 is when longshoremen who care for all of the ships and containers that dock at these ports have threatened to walk off the job.

It’s seen as a real possibility as the two sides have not been negotiating.

Port workers from Elizabeth and Newark, to Maine, and all the way to Texas plan to strike if demands for a reported 77% wage increase over a six-year contract aren’t met.

“Mark my words, we will shut them down Oct. 1 if we don’t get the kind of wages we deserve,” says ILA President Harold Daggett. “These greedy companies have made billions in the past few years. Especially during COVID.”

The U.S. Maritime Alliance, which represents all of the companies that use the ports, is said to be offering a wage increase of 40%

USMA says they’re ready to sit down and talk, adding, “It is disappointing that we have reached this point where the ILA is unwilling to reopen dialogue unless all of its demands are met.”

Union leadership also says it wants improved health care and no attempt at automation at the ports.

“We do not believe that robotics should take one human being's job,” Daggett says. If the ports shut down, the hardship on consumers wouldn’t be immediate, rather it would be felt around the holidays, according to one labor expert.

“There could be a scarcity of goods, particularly most consumer goods are no longer produced in the United States,” Rutgers University Professor Will Brucher, a labor expert. Brucher says all of those ships heading to the East Coast would be stuck in the bay or head west to California.

“That creates all kinds of problems with distribution. It’s not only changes in shipping, it’s changing in rail and trucking,” he says.

Meanwhile, the National Retail Federal has put in a request for the Biden administration to assist with negotiations. But the president has not yet agreed to help.

Longshoremen last went on strike in 1977.