EXCLUSIVE: Former President Donald Trump told Fox News Digital that the strike involving tens of thousands of longshore workers from Maine to Texas on Tuesday is a result of “the massive inflation caused by the Harris-Biden regime.”

Trump spoke exclusively to Fox News Digital on Tuesday morning after the International Longshoreman's Association (ILA) began its first strike since 1977 after its six-year contract with the US Maritime Alliance (USMX), which represents port employers, expired Monday evening.

Longshoremen strike at ports on the East and Gulf Coasts

“The strike was caused by the massive inflation caused by the Harris-Biden regime,” Trump told Fox News Digital. “Everyone understands the longshoremen because they have been decimated by this inflation, just like everyone else in our country and beyond.”

Negotiations between the ILA and USMX over the union's demands for wage increases and compensation as well as protection from automation at ports have so far been deadlocked.

Former President Donald Trump acknowledges the crowd during a campaign rally in Uniondale, New York, September 18, 2024. (DAVID DEE DELGADO/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)

USMX reportedly made a new offer to the ILA on Monday afternoon that would have included a nearly 50% increase in wages compared to the new contract, as well as a tripling of employer contributions to retirement plans and better health care, and would have retained automation language in the agreement. Sources told FOX Business that the ILA rejected the offer and did not object.

ILA President Harold Daggett claimed that initial offers to negotiate “didn't work out” but that the group was “always ready to sit down when the right number is reached.”

“Everything is off the table right now,” Daggett told FOX Business. “No one is talking at the moment. We got Congress to bring them to the table. And that’s where we are right now.”

Although the union's president declined to disclose the exact wage figure, President Biden, whose administration has tried to facilitate talks between the two sides, has said he will not use a federal labor law called the Taft-Hartley Act to intervene in the strike .

Under that law, Biden could take action that would result in an 80-day “cooling off” period for resuming negotiations while workers are back at work.

US BUYERS are starting to stock up on essentials as port strikes put pressure on prices “higher than ever”.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the largest trade group representing American companies, urged Biden in a letter to turn to Taft-Hartley to “protect our economy” by avoiding a work stoppage.

However, the president insisted he would not intervene.

Port workers are also on strike because they fear that automation could take jobs away from them. They are calling for a complete ban on automated cranes, gates and container transporters in freight transport.

The port closures account for about half of all U.S. imports and billions of dollars in trade turnover each month. They are also important export hubs for American companies.

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Imports of cars and car parts, agricultural products such as bananas, machinery, manufactured steel, furniture, clothing and much more will be affected. East and Gulf Coast ports In addition, significant proportions of exported cars and auto parts, pharmaceutical products, beef and pork, poultry, eggs, wood, plastics and other products or goods are handled.

A JPMorgan analysis estimated that the daily cost of a port strike by longshoremen on the East and Gulf Coasts would cost the U.S. economy between $3.8 billion and $4.5 billion per day as operations slow.

FOX Business' Kristin Altus and Eric Revell contributed to this report.