Supply Chains, Lockdowns, Strikes, Inflation All Related

SUPPLY CHAINS LOCKDOWNS. Photo of the Freedom Truck Convoy in Ottawa by Jimmy Super Starz https://bit.ly/3IJJNJ0 Canada’s world-record 40-mile long truck convoy combines strike and protest tactics. Moreover, a one part of the convoy parked outside Ottawa’s parliament building. The protest organizers don’t want to budge until Covid restrictions and vaccine mandates are lifted.

Both Canadian and US governments have locked down the border to unvaxxed truckers. But they do this ignoring the dramatic drop in Covid-19 deaths. Though highly contagious, the Omicron variant is proving to be no more lethal than the common flu.

So why endanger our supply chains further by restricting these drivers? Already truck containers keep clogging up many ports due to in-country lockdowns. Therefore lockdowns and broken supply chains cause empty shelves and decreased income. These in turn cause inflated prices for scarcer goods, worker layoffs, and strikes by remaining workers.

One example of ending this crisis

After an 8-day strike at the Port of Belize, stevedores returned with assurances of job security and certain retirement benefits. But idle containers clogged up the port. As a result, shipping companies warned of delays, and business leaders warned of higher costs. Yet many containers docked at the Port of Big Creek instead. And they paid the extra amount to truck their goods to Belize City. So Belize averted a major logjam and resulting inflation.

But will other countries avoid more supply chain breakdowns in 2022? Not if they keep imposing lockdowns and mandates. That will lead to more scarcity, more strikes and protests, and higher inflation. So politicians had better heed the voter dissatisfaction that is brewing. And companies had better keep their customers satisfied by stockpiling goods in case of future crises. Because who knows when another plague or calamity may strike?