Approximately 50,000 ILA union longshoremen were walking off the job at East Coast and Gulf Coast ports starting at 12:01 a.m. ET on October 1 after failing to reach an agreement with ports ownership on a new contract.

The union representing thousands of dockworkers from Maine to Texas launched a strike over wages and the use of automation, shutting down major seaports.

A week ago, few outside the labor movement or shipping industry knew Harold Daggett, the tough-talking, colorful head of the union now on strike at ports along the East and Gulf Coasts.

International Longshoremen's Association International President Harold J. Daggett took in a massive sum of income last year, according to union filings from the Department of Labor.

New Yorkers may see shortages and higher retail prices when they start their holiday shopping as the first large-scale stoppage in almost 50 years started affecting ports from Maine to Texas Tuesday.

Holiday shoppers should get ahead on their purchases before the supply chain disruptions tied to the port strike begin to hinder business operations, an expert says.

U.S. President Joe Biden said on Thursday he believed progress was being made in a port labor contract dispute, as dockworkers entered their third day of a strike along the East Coast and Gulf Coast.

Long lines of container ships queued up outside major U.S. ports on Thursday as the biggest dockworker strike in nearly half a century entered its third day preventing unloading and threatening shortages of everything from bananas to auto parts.

The White House has been nudging the International Longshoremen's Association and shipping companies to reach a deal with billions on the line for the U.S. economy as the port strike continues. CBS News White House reporter Willie James Inman has more on that and the White House's response to the ongoing developments in the Middle East.