The labor slowdown at ports in the Pacific Northwest is hurting U.S. pork exports. National Pork Producers Council CEO Neil Dierks says the unions have been without a labor agreement since July of 2014 and the result is shipments of pork have slowed down to key customers in Asia.

He says 60-percent of the U.S. pork supply leaves through a port, of which 80-percent goes through ports on the West Coast. The slowdown of loading pork shipments has resulted in the loss of business, especially high dollar pork products.
Dierks says they have asked the President and Congress to intervene. However, since this is a labor slowdown and not a strike or a lockout the ability to mediate under the Taft Hartley Act is not an option.