At least 25,000 dockworkers at East and Gulf Coast ports could walk off the job next week, impacting about half of the country's imports and possibly sending prices higher for consumers. Negotiations between the workers' union and the employers face a Tuesday deadline.

Mirko Woitzik, global director of Intelligence for Everstream Analytics said that his company’s analysis of historic congestion and strike data for U.S. ports concludes that every 24-hour shutdown of all East and Gulf Coast ports would result in operational backlogs that could take up to 7 days to clear,